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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



FROM JERUSALEM TO NIC^A 

THE CHURCH IN THE FIRST THREE 
CENTURIES 



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From Jerusalem to Nic^a 



THE CHURCH IN THE FIRST THREE 
CENTURIES 



PHILIP STAFFORD MOXOM 

AUTHOR OF "THE AIM OF LIFE" 




BOSTON 

ROBERTS BROTHERS 

1895 



k> 






Copyright, 1895, 
By Roberts Brothers. 



John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 



In Sacrrti J&emorg 

OF TWO FRIENDS 

HANNAH BRADBURY GOODWIN 

AND 

NATHANAEL SCHNEIDER, M.D. 



* 



PREFACE, 



r I ^HESE Lectures were delivered under the 
auspices of the Lowell Institute, in Boston, 
on the successive Tuesday and Friday evenings 
from February 12th to March 8th, 1895. They 
are printed as they were delivered, save that much 
matter, consisting mainly of illustrative quotations 
from the early Fathers, which had to be omitted 
in the delivery, appears in these pages. It scarcely 
needs to be said that scholars will find in the lec- 
tures nothing new; but I dare to believe that the 
general reader will find here, in intelligible form, 
much which he shall look for elsewhere in vain, 
save in more or less voluminous and sometimes 
not easily obtainable church histories. 

My thanks are due to the friends by whom I 
was inspired to undertake this task; and I am 
specially indebted to the Rev. David Nelson Beach 



vi Preface. 

who has aided me by his enthusiastic interest in 
my work, and by valuable suggestions, and also to 
Professor William Mathews, LL. D., who has ren- 
dered my readers as well as myself a great service 
by preparing the index which concludes this 

volume. 

Philip Stafford Moxom. 



Springfield, Mass., 
March; 1895. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

The Rise and Spread of Christianity .... 13 

The Organization of the Early Church ... 52 

The Apostolic Fathers 99 

The Struggle with Heathenism : The Perse- 
cutions 163 

The Struggle with Heathenism : The Apolo- 
gists 218 

The Struggle within the Church : Heresies . 276 

The Christian School of Alexandria .... 333 

The First Ecumenical Council 393 

Appendix 445 

Index 447 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 



The following is a list of most of the works which have 
been read or consulted in the preparation of these lec- 
tures. It is given specially for the convenience of readers 
Who wish to investigate for themselves the subject here 
presented. 

" The Encyclopaedia Britannica," 9th edition, especially the 
articles by Harnack ; Hackett's Smith's " Dictionary of 
the Bible ; " Smith and Cheetham's " Dictionary of Chris- 
tian Antiquities; " Smith and Wace's "Dictionary of Chris- 
tian Biography;" McClintock and Strong's "Cyclopaedia 
of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature ; " 
The Schaff-Herzog " Cyclopaedia ; " "A Catholic Diction- 
ary," by Addis and Arnold ; the " Church Histories," by 
Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Neander, Baur, 
Kurtz, Giesseler, Guericke, Schaff, Moeller, Cheetham, 
Fisher, Sheldon, and Pressense" ; Eusebius's " Life of 
Constantine ; " Tacitus's " Annals ; " Pliny's " Letters ; " 
Strabo's " Geography ; " Philo-Judaeus's " Works ; " Ta- 
tian's " Diatessaron ; " The Ante-Nicene Fathers," 24 
volumes ; Ramsay's " The Church in the Roman Em- 
pire;" Stanley's " History of the Eastern Church," and 
"Christian Institutions;" Mommsen's "History of Rome;" 
Gibbon's " History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman 
Empire ; " Milman's " History of Christianity ; " Plum- 
mer's " The Church of the Early Fathers ; " Farrar's 



Bibliographical Note. 

" Lives of the Fathers," " Life and Work of St. Paul," and 
" Early Years of Christianity ; " Lecky's " History of Euro- 
pean Morals;" Fisher's "Beginnings of Christianity;" 
Lightfoot's " Apostolic Fathers," " Essays," and Com- 
mentaries on Galatians and Philippians ; Reeve's " Apol- 
ogy of Tertullian ; " Bigg's " Christian Platonists of Alex- 
andria;" Uebervveg's " History of Philosophy; " Hatch's 
" Organization of the Early Church ; " A. V. G. Allen's 
" Continuity of Christian Thought ; " " Literature of the 
Second Century," by Wynne, Bernard, and Hemphill; 
Uhlhorn's "Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism," 
and " Christian Charity in the Ancient Church ; " Cony- 
beare and Howson's " Life and Epistles of St. Paul ; " 
"The Gospel of St. Peter," by Rendel Harris; Cape's 
" Early Empire," and " Age of the Antonines ; " Jenning's 
" Manual of Church History; " F. H. Hedge's " Ways of 
the Spirit ; " J. H. Allen's " Fragments of Christian His- 
tory;" Newman's " History of the Arians of the Fourth 
Century ; " Bishop Kaye's " Ecclesiastical History of the 
Second and Third Centuries," and " Writings and Opin- 
ions of Clement of Alexandria ; " Poole's " Life and Times 
of S. Cyprian," Caldwell's " Cities of Our Faith," and 
Schaff's " Teaching of the Twelve Apostles." 



CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF ROMAN EMPERORS 
FROM AUGUSTUS TO CONSTANTINE. 



Augustus B.C. 31-A.D. 14 

Tiberius a.d. 14- " 37 

Caligula " 37- " 41 

Claudius " 41- " 54 

Nero " 54- " 68 

Galba " 68- " 69 

Otho 7 

Vitellius i 6 9 

Vespasian " 69- " 79 

Titus " 79- " 81 

Domitian " 81- " 96 

Nerva " 96- " 98 

Trajan " 97- " 117 

Hadrian " 117- " 138 

Antoninus Pius " 138- " 161 

Marcus Aurelius " 161- " 180 

Commodus " 180- " 192 

Pertinax ) u 

Didius Julianus > ^3 

Septimius Severus " 193- " 211 

Caracalla " 211- " 217 

Macrinus " 217- " 218 

Elagabalus " 219- " 222 

Alexander Severus " 222- " 235 

Maximin " 235- " 238 

Gordian " 238- " 244 



xii Chronological List. 



Philip B.C. 244-A.D. 249 

Decius " 249- " 251 

Gallus " 251- " 253 

Valerian . " 253- " 260 

Gallienus " 261- " 268 

Claudius II " 269- " 270 

Aurelian " 270- il 275 

Tacitus " 275- " 276 

Probus . " 276- " 282 

Carus " 282- " 283 

Diocletian " 283-^ 

Maximian " 286- $ 3°5 

Constantius > u u < 306 

Galerius > I 311 

Severus \ r 307 

Maxentius C " 306- " I312 

Maximian) (310 

Maximin Daza) (3 T 3 

Licinius > " 307- " •} 323 

Constantine ) ( 337 

Constantine, Sole Emperor . . " 323- " 337 



FROM JERUSALEM TO NIC/EA. 



THE RISE AND SPREAD OF 
CHRISTIANITY. 

MY function in the present course of lectures, 
as I have conceived it, is not to propound 
and unfold a theory, but to confine myself mainly 
to a statement of facts. The first three centuries 
of the Christian era is a time of beginnings. In 
that time may be found the germs of all the later 
developments of Christian institutions and Chris- 
tian thought. An intelligent acquaintance with 
the facts of that early time is absolutely necessary 
to a clear understanding of the later developments. 
Those facts I shall try to give with such fulness 
and distinctness as will enable intelligent hearers, 
who heretofore have had little acquaintance with 
the story of the early Church, to form some just 
judgment on the extent and significance of that 
extraordinary phenomenon in history, — the rise 
and development of the Christian religion. Much 
that is interesting, and, from an historical point of 



14 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

view, valuable, must be omitted ; but, I believe, 
nothing will be omitted that is essential. If in 
some directions I have gone into rather minute de- 
tail as, for example, in the account of Gnosticism, 
it is because in the treatment of this subject, the 
ordinary and accessible church histories are usually 
too compendious to be either interesting or intelli- 
gible to the lay reader. 

The contemporary story of the beginning of 
Christianity is confined almost entirely to the vari- 
ous documents which make up the New Testa- 
ment. The earliest of these documents are the 
authentic and universally acknowledged epistles of 
St. Paul. These epistles imply the basis of the 
essential facts which are given in the Gospels. The 
story is too familiar to require repetition here, save 
in a simple outline that may be presented in a few 
words. 

In Palestine, a small and obscure province of 
the Roman empire, there appeared, during the 
reign of Tiberius, a Teacher and Prophet named 
Jesus of Nazareth. For a little more than three 
years this Teacher and Prophet engaged in the 
work of announcing His message, inculcating His 
ideas of God and righteousness, and ministering to 
the needs of the sick and the poor. He gathered 
about Him a group of about a dozen men, mostly 
humble fishermen, whom He instructed in His 
principles and methods, and whom He bound to 
Himself by ties of confidence and affection that 



Rise and Spread of Christianity, 15 

proved to be indestructible. The teaching of 
Jesus, claiming to be a message from God, while 
it appealed to multitudes of men with a power 
beyond that of any other religious teaching which 
has been given to the world, excited the animosity 
of the ruling classes among the Jews, especially 
the Pharisees, and brought on a conflict which in a 
little time issued in His violent death on the cross. 
His disciples, at first overwhelmed by sorrow and 
despair, in a short time strongly revived in confi- 
dence and courage, and developed a devotion to 
the name of Jesus and a zeal in His service which 
made them successful propagators of the new faith 
and life. 

These disciples believed that Jesus had come 
forth from God to reveal to men the nature and 
purposes of God, and to bring to the world salva- 
tion from sin. They believed that, after three days 
in the embrace of death, He rose from the dead 
and lived in personal communication with them 
for the space of forty days, explaining and con- 
firming the teaching which He had previously 
given them ; and that He finally departed from 
their sight to be no more the local and visible 
Christ, but henceforth to be the Divine Adminis- 
trator of the Kingdom of God in the world. 

Inspired with this faith, they became invincibly 
courageous in proclaiming the message which they 
had received from Him ; and they proved their 
fidelity to His teaching by untiring labors, by 



16 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

exalted purity of life, by patient endurance of 
suffering, and finally by martyrdom. 

The story in the book of the Acts of the Apos- 
tles reveals that a fresh and mighty impulse had 
come into human life. The new movement, begin- 
ning at Jerusalem, rapidly extended itself in Pales- 
tine. Although at first none of those who had 
been the immediate disciples of Jesus, and were 
recognized as His apostles, either extended their 
labors outside of Palestine, or seemed to have the 
intention of doing so, yet their preaching to the 
multitude in Jerusalem, which contained represen- 
tatives of various nations other than the Jewish, 
kindled a faith and enthusiasm like their own in 
the hearts of many men who went forth to be mis- 
sionaries of the gospel of Christ. It was not be- 
cause of any deliberate purpose at first, then, but 
because of the inevitable expansive force of the 
new faith, that it spread beyond the confines of the 
Holy Land. 

The records of the time, meagre as they are, 
show us that Christianity soon pushed beyond the 
narrow bounds of Judea, and beyond the immediate 
influence of the apostles, and created centres of 
Christian life and thought in distant cities. In a 
short time the antagonism of the Jewish leaders to 
the gospel developed into persecutions which 
scattered the believers in Jesus. These scattered 
believers everywhere became disseminators of the 
Christian doctrines. We know, for example, that 



Rise and Spread of Christianity, ly 

Christian churches were founded in Antioch and 
Rome and other places without the knowledge or 
presence of the apostles. 

At first, the disposition of the apostles, who 
were all Jews, was to confine the preaching of the 
gospel to their own countrymen ; but in a short 
time a new worker came upon the scene. This 
was Saul of Tarsus, who is known in Christian 
history as St. Paul. This man, a native of Tarsus, 
a free city of the Roman empire, and himself a 
free citizen, was bred in the traditions and princi- 
ples of the Hebrew religion, and was carefully 
educated in all the Hebrew learning in the school 
of Rabbi Gamaliel in Jerusalem. 

At first, Paul was a vehement persecutor of the 
followers of Jesus, but a remarkable experience 
which came to him while he was on the way to 
Damascus on an errand of persecution, resulted in 
his entire conversion to the Christian faith. From 
this time, Paul became an ardent and effective 
preacher of the Gospel of Jesus. His surviving 
letters, most of which have been authenticated by 
the severest criticism of modern scholars, contain, 
incorporated in his peculiar thought, the substance 
of the Christian facts and faith, and set forth the 
Divine Personality of the Founder of Christianity; 
and these epistles, more than any other part of the 
New Testament, have shaped the theology of the 
Christian Church for nearly nineteen centuries. 

With the conversion of Paul, thus, not only a 

2 



1 8 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

new personality, but also a larger conception of 
the gospel came into the field. He conceived that 
the message which Jesus gave was not designed for 
Jews only, but for humanity. In his teaching and 
his aim, Christianity became what Jesus evidently 
designed it should be, the universal faith. 

Almost from the beginning of Paul's ministry, 
therefore, Christianity passed out of the narrow 
bounds of Judaism, and addressed itself to the 
conquest of the world. The story of Paul's travels 
and labors has the fascination of romance. By his 
efforts the gospel was diffused throughout Asia 
Minor, Christian churches sprang up under his 
preaching in nearly every province of that penin- 
sula, and converts to Christ were gathered in 
Macedonia and Achaia, and possibly, also, in 
Arabia and Spain. 

St. Paul suffered martyrdom near the end of the 
reign of Nero, about 68 A. D. At the time of his 
death, less than forty years after the reputed ascen- 
sion of Jesus, the Christian faith had already taken 
root in many places throughout a considerable 
part of the Roman empire. From the Acts of the 
Apostles and other writings of the first century, it 
appears that in Antioch, in Pisidia, nearly the whole 
population came together to listen to Paul. In 
Ephesus the temple of the tutelary goddess, Diana, 
was all but deserted ; the silversmiths, who did a 
thriving business in the manufacture of small 
models of the temple for the use of worshippers, 



Rise and Spread of Christianity. 19 

complained that their business was almost ruined ; 
and the magicians, of whom there was a great num- 
ber, abandoned their arts and burned their books in 
the public square. In Jerusalem, Syrian Antioch, 
Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome were large churches, 
in one or two cases certainly numbering their 
members by thousands. We learn that somewhat 
later, there were fifty thousand members in the 
church in Antioch. In Rome there were Chris- 
tians enough to attract the attention of the 
emperor and excite the antipathy, if not the ap- 
prehension, of the citizens. In Thessalonica it was 
the popular cry that the apostles had turned the 
world upside down. So rapid was the spread of 
Christianity that Paul used pardonable hyperbole 
when he exclaimed that the gospel was bearing 
fruit in all the world, and that it had been preached 
" in the whole creation which is under heaven." 
Nor were the Christians confined to the poor and 
wretched. There were women of wealth and dis- 
tinction in the Church, such as Lydia, in Philippi, 
the " chief women " of Thessalonica, and Domitilla, 
a relative of Domitian's, in Rome. Of prominent 
men who were converts to the Christian faith, we 
have the names of Sergius Paulus, proconsul of 
Cyprus ; Publius, the Roman governor of Malta ; 
Flavius Clemens, a consul; the Asiarchs, or chief 
officers of Asia, in Ephesus ; Dionysius, a member 
of the Council of Areopagus in Athens ; Erastus, 
the public treasurer in Corinth; Cornelius, the 



20 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

centurion; Luke, the physician; Theophilus, to 
whom Luke addressed his writings; Crispus, the 
ruler of the synagogue in Corinth ; and members 
of the Jewish sanhedrim, the priesthood, and the 
sect of the Pharisees. 

There is a lack of precise and abundant infor- 
mation for about sixty years after the death of 
Paul. From the first quarter of the second cen- 
tury historical records of the growth of Chris- 
tianity grow clearer and more abundant. A study 
of those records up to the close of the third cen- 
tury reveals that Christianity was extended with 
extraordinary rapidity throughout the known world. 
There is evidence that soon after the middle of the 
second century there was a Christian church in 
Edessa so flourishing as to count among its mem- 
bers Abgar Bar Manu, king of Orshene in Meso- 
potamia. About the same time there were 
churches, or groups of believers in the Christian 
faith, in various parts of Persia, Media, Parthia, 
and Bactria. 

Christian churches in Arabia were visited by 
Origen in the early part of the third century; and 
there is fairly good evidence that there was a 
Christian church in India as early as 350 A. D. In 
Egypt, Christianity made great progress, espe- 
cially in Alexandria, which is the traditional scene 
of the labors of St. Mark. It also penetrated 
Cyrene and neighboring territories. In Upper 
Egypt, the gospel found a lodgement, before the 



Rise and Spread of Christianity. 21 

close of the second century, among the Copts, the 
reputed descendants of the ancient Egyptians. 

The gospel extended throughout Proconsular 
Africa, and developed a powerful centre of life in 
Carthage. As early as 256 A. D. Cyprian was able 
to convene in Carthage a synod of eighty-seven 
bishops, " in the presence of a vast laity," and this 
was the seventh synod in that city during Cyprian's 
episcopate. Half a century earlier than this " the 
Christians in Roman Africa were to be counted by 
thousands, if not by millions." There is record of 
a synod held in Carthage shortly after 200 A. D. in 
which were assembled seventy African and Numi- 
dian bishops. North of the Mediterranean, Chris- 
tianity was extended somewhat less rapidly; but 
we find that between 175 and 200 A. D., there were 
strong Christian churches at Lyons and Vienne in 
Gaul. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons at that time, 
speaks of the gospel as already established in 
Germany, at least, west of the Rhine. There are 
more or less vague traditions of the gospel having 
quite early reached Britain and Spain. It is not 
at all impossible that St. Paul himself preached the 
gospel in Spain. In Britain, Christianity had 
made such progress that, at the Council of Aries, 
in 314 A. D., British churches were represented by 
the bishops of York, London, and Lincoln. By 
the time of Diocletian there were many Christians 
in the court and in civic offices, as well as in the 
army. As early as the time of Septimius Severus 



22 From yerusalem to Niccza. 

(193-21 1) they had become so numerous that they 
might have paralyzed the armies of the empire ; 
under Diocletian they were practically in the ma- 
jority. The persecution begun by the latter, and 
carried on more vigorously by Galerius, failed, 
because the extinction of the Christians meant the 
extinction of half the empire ; and after ten years 
of determined and bloody endeavor to exterminate 
Christianity, the empire became Christian at one 
blow. 

Such, in brief, is the account of the rapid exten- 
sion of the Christian faith during the first three 
centuries. Important evidence as to the number 
of the early Christians is furnished by the Cata- 
combs of Rome. These remarkable subterranean 
chambers, which were designed as receptacles for 
the Christian dead, served also in times of perse- 
cution as places of refuge and even as places of 
worship. For many centuries the Catacombs 
were not only hidden from sight, but, apparently, 
were even forgotten. Late in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, however (1578), some laborers, digging for 
Pozzolana earth, near Rome, accidentally discovered 
a sepulchral chamber. This was the beginning of 
the discovery of the vast subterranean city, which 
contained records of early Christianity as striking 
and as abundant as those which the discovery of 
the ruins of Pompeii, in recent times, have fur- 
nished concerning Roman domestic life at the 
beginning of the Christian era. 



Rise and Spread of Christianity. 23 

I may not take the time now to give any descrip- 
tion of the Catacombs. I mention them simply 
because they furnish noteworthy evidence as to 
the vast number of believers in Christ which there 
must have been in Rome previous to A. D. 350. 
After that date the Catacombs ceased to be much 
used as a place of burial ; far the larger number 
of interments in them, therefore, must have taken 
place previous to that date. 

Padre Marchi estimates the length of these sub- 
terranean burial chambers, at eight or nine hun- 
dred miles, which would give them a capacity for 
between six and seven million bodies. This esti- 
mate is undoubtedly extravagant. Michele de 
Rossi estimates the length at 957,800 yards, or 
about five hundred and ninety miles. This would 
give the Catacombs a capacity for nearly or quite 
four million bodies. Northcote and Brownlow 
estimate the length at not less than three hundred 
and fifty miles, which would give space for about 
three million bodies. It is not likely that this 
last estimate could be materially reduced, but 
if it were reduced one-half, the evidence which, 
even then, the Catacombs furnish of a very 
large Christian population in the city of Rome 
during the second and third centuries, is very 
strong. 

I turn now, for a few minutes, to the testimony 
of contemporary writers. The Roman historian 
Tacitus, in his account of the burning of Rome 



24 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

and the persecution of the Christians by Nero in 
A. D. 64, implies that the number of Christians in 
the Roman capital, even at that early date, was 
large. The Christians were charged by Nero with 
setting fire to the city. Says Tacitus : " First 
those were seized who confessed they were Chris- 
tians ; next, on their information, a vast multitude 
were convicted, not so much on the charge of 
burning the city, as of hating the human race." 
The charge of hating the human race, was, as we 
shall see, one of the earliest charges brought 
against the Christians by their enemies. It was 
due to the fact that, in loyalty to their faith, the 
Christians withdrew from many of the occupations 
and social pleasures of their fellow-countrymen, 
because these were so inextricably involved with 
idolatry. The testimony of Tacitus, as to the great 
number of Christians thus early, is not affected in 
value by his opinion as to their character. 

Pliny, governor of Bithynia and Pontus under 
Trajan, wrote to his imperial master, in 1 1 1 A. D., 
asking for directions as to how he should treat 
the Christians. His letter makes it clear that 
already Christians were so numerous in the prov- 
inces which he governed that the heathen temples 
were largely deserted, and the " sacred rites " of 
the heathen religion had almost ceased. He was 
perplexed by the immense number of those with 
whom he must deal as offenders against the Roman 
law by practising an illicit religion. In his letter he 



Rise and Spread of Christianity. 25 

says: " It appears to be a matter highly deserving 
your consideration, more especially as great num- 
bers must be involved in the danger of these per- 
secutions, which have already extended, and are 
still likely to extend, to persons of all ranks and 
ages and even both sexes. In fact, this contagious 
superstition is not confined to the city only, but 
has spread its infection among the neighboring 
villages and country." 

Let us turn now to the testimony of the Chris- 
tian Apologists. Of these there arose a great 
number, especially during the second century and 
the early part of the third, — Justin Martyr, Ta- 
tian, Athenagoras, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Minucius 
Felix, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and others. 
These bear convincing testimony to the rapid and 
wide extension of Christianity. They show that 
before the close of the second century it had 
grown to be a recognized power in the empire; 
that before the middle of the third century it had 
a philosophy as well as a gospel to offer to men ; 
that it boldly laid claim to universal acceptance 
and obedience ; and also that it had made many 
converts among the rich and learned as well as 
among the poor and ignorant. I can give but a 
few examples now, which, however, are sufficient 
to indicate the character and extent of the testi- 
mony. Justin Martyr, who wrote between 135 
and 163 A. D,, in his "Dialogue with Trypho," 
makes this statement: "For there is not one 



26 From Jerusalem to Niccea* 

single race of men, whether barbarians or Greeks, 
or whatever they may be called, nomads, or 
vagrants, or herdsmen living in tents, among 
whom prayers and giving of thanks are not offered 
through the Name of the crucified Jesus." 

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons in Gaul, who wrote 
between 170 and 200 A. d., speaks as follows: 
" The church, though dispersed throughout the 
whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has 
received from the apostles and their disciples this 
faith." Again he says: " Although the languages 
of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the 
tradition is one and the same. For the churches 
which have been planted in Germany do not 
believe or hand down anything different, nor do 
those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in 
the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, 
nor those which have been established in the 
central regions of the world." By the expression 
" central regions," Irenaeus evidently means the 
churches in Palestine. 

Tertullian, a distinguished presbyter of Carthage, 
writing between 197 and 220 A. D., gives the 
following testimony in his " Address to Scapula": 
" One would think it must be abundantly clear to 
you that the religious system under whose rules 
we act is one inculcating a divine patience ; since, 
though our numbers are so great, — consisting of 
all but the majority in every city, — we conduct 
ourselves so quietly and modestly." In his 



Rise and Spread of Christianity. 27 

" Apology " he says : " The outcry is that the 
state is filled with Christians, — that they are in 
the fields, in the citadels, in the islands ; they 
make lamentation, as for some calamity, that both 
sexes, every age and condition, even high rank, 
are passing over to the profession of the Christian 
faith." In the same writing he declares : " We 
are but of yesterday, and we have filled every 
place among you — cities, islands, fortresses, 
towns, marketplaces, the very camp, tribes, com- 
panies, palaces, senate, forum, — we have left 
nothing to you but the temples of your gods. 
For what wars should we not be fit, not eager, 
even with unequal forces, we who so willingly 
yield ourselves to the sword, if in our religion it 
were not counted better to be slain than to slay? 
Without arms even, and raising no insurrectionary 
banner, but simply in enmity to you, we could 
carry on the contest with you by an ill- willed 
severance alone. For if such multitudes of men 
were to break away from you, and betake them- 
selves to some remote corner of the world, why, 
the very loss of so many citizens, whatever sort 
they were, would cover the empire with shame ; 
nay, in the very forsaking, vengeance would be 
inflicted. Why, you would be horror-struck at 
the solitude in which you would find yourselves, 
at such an all-prevailing silence, and that stupor 
as of a dead world. You would have to seek 
subjects to govern. You would have more ene- 



28 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

mies than citizens remaining. For now it is the 
immense number of Christians which makes your 
enemies so few, — almost all the inhabitants of 
your various cities being followers of Christ." 

In his work called " To the Nations," which 
Tertullian addressed to the general public, while 
his "Apology" he had addressed rather to the 
rulers and magistrates of the empire, he exclaims : 
" Your constant cry is that the state is beset [by 
us] ; that Christians are in your fields, in your 
camps, in your islands. You grieve over it as a 
calamity that each sex, every age — in short, every 
rank — is passing over from you to us." 

In his " Answer to the Jews," the same writer 
says : " Upon whom else have the universal 
nations believed but the Christ who has already 
come? For whom have the nations believed, — 
Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and they who inhabit 
Mesopotamia, Armenia, Phrygia, Cappadocia, 
and they who dwell in Pontus, and Asia, and 
Pamphylia, tarriers in Egypt, and inhabiters of 
the region of Africa which is beyond Cyrene, 
Romans and sojourners, yes, and in Jerusalem, 
Jews, and all other nations; as for instance, by 
this time, the varied races of the Gaetulians, and 
manifold confines of the Moors, all the limits of 
the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, 
and the haunts of the Britons (inaccessible to the 
Romans, but subjugated to Christ), and of the 
Sarmatians, and Dacians, and Germans, and 



Rise and Spread of Christianity. 29 

Scythians, and of many remote nations, and of 
provinces and islands many, to us unknown, and 
which we can scarce enumerate? In all of which 
places the name of the Christ who is already come 
reigns as of Him before Whom the gates of all 
cities have been opened. . . . 

" But Christ's name is being extended every- 
where, believed everywhere, worshipped every- 
where by all the above enumerated nations." 

The "Apology" was written in A. D. 197, and 
the " Address to the Nations" soon after; the 
"Address to Scapula" and the "Answer to the 
Jews" about 211. Some abatement from this 
testimony may be allowed on account of Tertul- 
lian's well-known rhetorical style, but after all 
reasonable abatement has been made, there re- 
mains an abundant and uncontradicted testimony 
from Tertullian to the wide extension of Chris- 
tianity before the end of the second century. 
Tertullian's testimony is strengthened by the con- 
sideration that he boldly challenged criticism by 
numerous explicit statements made repeatedly in 
published works, through the space of from six- 
teen to twenty years ; that his writings compelled 
the attention of pagan officials and philosophers 
who would not be slow to detect and contradict 
misstatements ; and that his very rhetorical instinct 
would lead him to base his eloquence on facts so 
well-known as to be almost commonplace until he 
gave them fresh significance by his fervent style. 



30 From Jerusalem to Niceea. 

Clement of Alexandria, who wrote between 189 
and 200 A. D., contrasting the gospel with philoso- 
phy, says : " The philosophers chose to teach phi- 
losophy to the Greeks alone, and not even to all 
of them ; . . . but the word of our Teacher re- 
mained not in Judea alone, as philosophy did in 
Greece; but was diffused over the whole world, 
over every nation, and village, and town, bringing 
already over to the truth, whole houses, and each 
individual of those who heard it by himself, and 
not a few of the philosophers themselves." 

Origen, who wrote between A. D. 220 and 250, 
in his writing, " Against Celsus," the most impor- 
tant apologetic work produced by the early 
Church, uses the following language : " At the 
present day, indeed, when, owing to the multitude 
of Christian believers, not only rich men, but per- 
sons of rank, and delicate and high-born ladies, 
receive the teachers of Christianity, some perhaps 
will dare to say that it is for the sake of a little 
glory that certain individuals assume the office of 
Christian instructors." 

In another place he quotes from Celsus the fol- 
lowing: " Christians at first were few in number, 
and held the same opinions ; but when they grew 
to be a great multitude they were divided and sep- 
arated, each wishing to have his own individual 
party, — for this was their object from the begin- 
ning." Here we have the involuntary testimony 
of a bitter opponent of Christianity, who wrote as 
early as 177 or 178 A. D. 



Rise and Spread of Christianity, 31 

To this remark Origen replies : " That Christians 
at first were few in number, in comparison with the 
multitudes which subsequently became Christian, is 
undoubted," etc. In these words Origen confirms 
the testimony of Celsus and adds his own. 

But apart from the detailed evidence which I 
have thus rapidly summarized, the certain fact 
arises before us that Christianity, beginning about 
the year 30 A. D. in a single person, a Jew, who 
was crucified by the Romans at the instigation of 
His fellow-countrymen, and who had a following 
of only a few humble disciples, in less than three 
hundred years took possession of the Roman 
empire, and seated itself permanently upon the im- 
perial throne. In a period slightly less than that 
which separates the present time from the death of 
Shakespeare, the new religion, against the entire 
force of heathenism, overcame all obstacles, over- 
turned the deep-rooted polytheisms of Greece, 
Rome, Asia, and Gaul, and changed the character 
and course of civilization. The history of the 
world presents no phenomenon so striking, no 
movement of the human race so vast in extent 
and so significant in its results. 

The explanation of this phenomenon constitutes 
the largest and most interesting problem that con- 
fronts the philosophic student of history. Chris- 
tianity is a complex fact, not only of the past, but 
also of the present. Beginning more than eigh- 
teen centuries ago, the religion of Jesus is to-day 



32 From J erusalem to Niece a. 

immeasurably the greatest spiritual force in the 
world. It is co-extensive with the peoples that 
have achieved the largest progress in the arts and 
industries, and have attained the highest civiliza- 
tion ; it is professed by all the nations of Europe, 
has been widely diffused in Asia and Africa, and 
possesses and rules the great nations which occupy 
the Western Hemisphere, — a territory unknown 
to the world until long after the Roman empire 
had fallen into ruin. It is difficult for us to ap- 
proach this question with entirely impartial minds. 
We have been born and nurtured in the atmos- 
phere of Christianity. Our ethics and our ideals, 
individual and social, have been inspired and 
shaped by the teachings of Jesus. It is, however, 
true, that an adherence to the essential principles 
of Christianity is not necessarily a disqualification 
for forming a dispassionate and sound judgment 
on the problem before us. It might be argued, 
indeed, that only one who has an interior knowl- 
edge of the Christian faith is able to form any 
adequate idea of its nature, and to reach any just 
conclusions as to its source and the reasons of its 
extraordinary development. 

Let us consider, first, some of the conditions in 
the midst of which Christianity took its rise. Polit- 
ically the world had attained to a degree of unity 
previously unknown. Under the lead of Julius 
Caesar and of Augustus, the Roman arms had 
extended the power of the empire to the remotest 



Rise and Spread of Christianity, 33 

confines of civilization, exclusive of China and In- 
dia, and even over large territories of barbarous 
and savage races. The Mediterranean had become 
a Roman lake. The dominion of the emperor 
extended from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, from 
the wild moors of Scotland to the deserts of Africa, 
and contained a population of probably not less 
than one hundred million souls. 

Throughout this immense domain the Roman 
power was sufficiently strong to make itself felt as 
a unifying force upon the civil life of innumerable 
and diverse peoples. Under Augustus, a process 
of centralization was carried on, which gave a 
practically uniform administration of law over the 
whole empire. As- some one has said : " The 
Romans conquered like savages, but ruled like 
philosophic statesmen, till, from the Euphrates to 
the Atlantic, from the shores of Britain and the 
borders of the German forests to the sands of the 
African deserts, the whole Western world was con- 
solidated into one great commonwealth, united by 
bonds of law and government, and by the facilities 
of communication and commerce, and by the 
general dissemination of the Greek and Latin 
languages." 

In the time of Tiberius, in the latter part of 
whose reign Christianity arose, a universal peace 
prevailed, and already a common political life per- 
vaded the empire. The privileges and immunities 
of citizenship, which at first were jealously confined 

3 



34 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

to Rome, were soon extended to individuals and 
to cities beyond the boundaries of Italy; and this 
extension went on so rapidly that it was made 
practically universal by Caracalla between 21 1 and 
217 A. D. 

The maintenance and administration of the 
vast empire which Roman arms had conquered, 
required the planting of military colonies in many 
remote provinces of the territory, and the building 
of roads and the development of means for easy 
and rapid communication. The nature and extent 
of the means for communication Uhlhorn thus 
graphically describes : " The first emperor, Augus- 
tus, erected in the Forum at Rome a golden mile- 
stone. It stood as a symbol that there was the 
centre of the world. A network of artificial high- 
ways, even then nearly completed, extended from 
this point through the entire empire. From Cadiz 
in Spain, through France, through Italy, away up 
to the cataracts of the Nile, from the lands of the 
Danube even to the Pillars of Hercules, the trav- 
eller could journey over well-built roads, and find 
everywhere, at certain distances, mutationes for 
change of horses, and mansiones for lodging at 
night. These roads were so many cords binding 
the conquered world to the centre, Rome, — so 
many channels for the impulses which streamed 
forth from it. On these roads marched the legions 
to keep under control the subjugated world, and to 
protect the boundaries ; on these roads proconsuls 



Rise and Spread of Christianity. 35 

and praetors went into the provinces to administer 
law and justice, and swift couriers bore the edicts 
of the emperor to the extreme circumference of 
the broad empire ; over these highways commerce 
moved, and Romans of distinction journeyed to 
gain knowledge of the world ; over these highways, 
too, went the messengers of the gospel, bearing 
from city to city the joyful tidings of a manifested 
Redeemer." 

The barriers between the nations were thus 
broken down, and a thitherto unknown freedom of 
intercourse prevailed among the diverse peoples 
of the East and West. The result of all this was 
an increasing homogeneousness of thought, and of 
social as well as political life. The Greek tongue, 
the language of letters and commerce, was almost 
universally known ; and the Latin tongue, the 
language of law and civil administration, had a 
nearly equal extension. The political unification 
of the empire stimulated international commerce 
and a cosmopolitan education. The world was 
thus singularly prepared for the diffusion of the 
Christian faith. 

There were also moral conditions of great im- 
portance. The religions of the ancient world were 
almost entirely polytheistic and ethnic. Each na- 
tion had its own gods, and the powerful force of 
religion operated to hinder a community of life 
between the various peoples. The subjugation of 
these nations by Rome inevitably weakened the 



36 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

hold of the national gods upon the minds of their 
worshippers. Roman tolerance or indifference, 
while it left subject nations free to practise their 
own religious rites, had the effect of weakening the 
force of all current religions. The rapidly increas- 
ing mingling of diverse peoples brought together 
every variety of religious belief and worship ; the 
result of which was, a religious eclecticism that 
passed naturally into scepticism. On every hand 
there was a decay of the old faiths, and accom- 
panying this degeneration of religions, and partly 
because of it, was a development of colossal im- 
morality. The Roman conquest, especially of 
opulent Eastern peoples, resulted in the rapid 
increase of wealth and luxury in Rome; and 
this was accompanied by a rapid increase of vice. 
Popular sports became increasingly sensual and 
cruel, and even religion was made a minister of 
lust. 

When Christianity entered on its career of spir- 
itual conquest, it found heathenism in a state of 
indescribable moral degradation. The scathing 
indictment against pagan morals, which appears in 
the first chapter of St. Paul's epistle to the Romans, 
seems mild when compared with the testimony of 
some of the pagans themselves. 

Seneca, a contemporary of St. Paul, says: "All 
things are full of crimes and vices. A great strug- 
gle is waged for pre-eminence in iniquity. Daily 
grows the appetite for sin ; daily wanes the sense 



Rise and Spread of Christianity. ?>7 

of shame. All respect for excellence and justice 
being cast aside, lust rushes on at will. Crimes 
are no longer secret; they stalk before the eyes 
of men. Iniquity is given such a range in pub- 
lic, and is so mighty in the breasts of all, that 
innocence is not merely rare, it has no existence. 
Think you that there are only a few individuals 
who have made an end of law? From all sides, as 
at a given signal, men have sprung to the task of 
confounding right and wrong." 

Mommsen, the German historian, testifies that, 
" As a matter of course, morality and family life 
were treated as antiquated things among all ranks 
of society. To be poor was not merely the sorest 
disgrace and the worst crime, but the only disgrace 
and the only crime : for money the statesman sold 
the state, and the burgess sold his freedom ; the 
post of the officer and the vote of the jurymen 
were to be had for money ; for money the lady of 
quality surrendered her person as well as the com- 
mon courtesan ; falsifying of documents and per- 
juries had become so common that, in a popular 
poet of this age, an oath is called ' the plaster for 
debts.' Men had forgotten what honesty was ; the 
person who refused a bribe was regarded, not as an 
upright man, but as a personal foe. The criminal 
statistics of all times and countries will hardly fur- 
nish a parallel to the dreadful picture of crimes — ■ 
so varied, so horrible, and so unnatural — which 
the trial of Aulus Cluentius unrolls before us in 



38 From J erusalem to Niccza. 

the bosom of one of the most respectable families 
of an Italian country town." 

There seems to have been, beginning in Rome, 
and spreading to the wealthy centres of the distant 
provinces, an abandonment to vice that can be 
described only as a " hunger and thirst for unright- 
eousness." A consequence of this wide-spread 
immorality was a growing disgust with life, and 
finally a passionate or stolid despair, which urged 
so many to suicide, that this crime against self 
ceased to attract attention ; it was even defended 
by philosophers as the brave man's only refuge 
from the appalling evils of life. By the side of 
this despair, however, there arose, in many quar- 
ters, a vague expectancy of some new message 
to men that should bring deliverance and peace. 
This expectancy was due partly to the influence of 
Judaism. The Jews, even before the destruction 
of Jerusalem in A. D. 70, had penetrated all nations. 
They were numerous especially in Rome, in Alex- 
andria, and in the cities of the far East. The He- 
brew Scriptures had been translated into Greek 
some two centuries before the beginning of the 
Christian era, and the knowledge of their contents 
had been more or less widely diffused. The spirit 
of the Hebrew prophets had undoubtedly affected 
the minds of men in various quarters of the empire, 
especially in the East. There were numerous 
proselytes to the Jewish faith, and there were many 
others, not proselytes, who undoubtedly were 



Rise and Spread of Christianity, 39 

excited to the anticipation of some new religious 
revelation which should offer to men a way of 
escape from the moral chaos into which the world 
was rapidly falling. 

Such, very briefly, were some of the conditions 
of the world in the midst of which Christianity 
had its rise and began its work. 

We turn now to consider some of the causes of 
the rise and early growth of Christianity. Most 
readers of history are familiar with Gibbon's famous 
statement of these causes. They are : (a) the 
inflexible and intolerant zeal of the early Chris- 
tians, derived from the Jewish religion ; (U) their 
doctrine of future life and future rewards and pun- 
ishments ; (V) the miraculous powers ascribed to 
the primitive Church ; (d) the pure and austere 
morals of the Christians ; (e) their closely knit 
ecclesiastical organization. 

Gibbon cleverly evaded any attempt to account 
for the origin of Christianity, and confined himself 
to a statement of the causes of its rapid extension 
after the first century. It should be said, in jus- 
tice to the simple truth of history, that Gibbon's 
statement is wanting both in exactness and in 
entire ingenuousness. 

That the early Christians were inflamed by an 
unquenchable zeal is true; but their zeal was not 
intolerant, in the sense in which that term can 
properly be applied to the zeal of the Jewish sec- 
tary. They were intolerant of heathen vices and 



40 From Jerusalem to Niece a, 

superstitions, but their intolerance can scarcely be 
reckoned among the chief influences by which 
they commended their religion to heathens; espe- 
cially in view of the fact that Judaism, despite its 
ethical and spiritual superiority to the Gentile 
religions, was prevented from extending widely, 
largely because of the very narrowness and intol- 
erance of its adherents. Besides, towards the best 
pagan thought, Christian writers, like Justin Martyr 
and Clement of Alexandria, were hospitable and 
even sympathetic. 

The early Christians undoubtedly were inspired 
by a profound conviction of the immortality *of 
the soul, and an invincible belief in the reality of 
future rewards and punishments ; and unquestion- 
ably their faith in a future life constituted in itself 
a powerful appeal to the minds of men. But there 
is no evidence that, in the first two centuries at 
least, Christian preachers generally made such use 
in their preaching of the doctrine of future rewards 
and punishments as Gibbon implies, and as was 
made by Christian preachers in later centuries ; or 
even such use of it as was made by Tertullian at 
the beginning of the third century. 

The possession of miraculous powers by the 
primitive Church would not, of itself, necessarily 
conduce to the rapid and permanent extension of 
the Church ; and the fact that miraculous powers 
were ascribed to the Apostolic Church by both 
friends and foes of Christianity does not have any 



Rise and Spread of Christianity. 41 

great force as an argument that the assumed 
possession of such powers was a chief cause of its 
growth, particularly when we consider that the 
widest extension of Christianity took place after 
the acknowledged cessation of the apostolic mira- 
cles. In only two or three of the early apologists 
are there reports of contemporary Christian mira- 
cles, save such as refer to the healing of demoniacs, 
and to supernatural visions. The allusion of Ire- 
naeus to the contemporary raising of a dead man is 
indefinite. There is no evidence that the early 
Christians to any extent either claimed to work 
miracles themselves, or commended the gospel to 
pagans on the ground of miraculous powers repos- 
ing in the Church. It must be said, however, that 
such claims were freely made by the founders of 
heretical sects ; and that the exorcism of demons 
was considered by many a proper function of Chris- 
tian ministers. But, considering the fact that almost 
all people of that time, Jews and pagans as well as 
Christians, believed in miracles, the student of the 
first three centuries is surprised to find in most of 
the early Christian writers a singular sanity and 
reserve on this subject. In this respect they 
stand far above many later writers. The swarming 
miracles of ecclesiastical legend nearly all belong 
to a period subsequent to the Nicene Council. It 
should be said, also, that miracles, even if they 
were real, however much they might predispose 
men to listen, for the time being, to the miracle- 



42 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

workers, were incapable of producing that faith 
which issues in holy life and character, and, if they 
were not real, their inevitable exposure would 
hinder rather than aid the progress of the doc- 
trines in support of which they were adduced. In 
either case, therefore, Gibbon's argument at this 
point breaks down. 

The pure and austere morals of the Christians 
undoubtedly made a profound impression upon 
corrupt pagan society; but, in so far as those 
morals were austere they would naturally repel, 
rather than attract, those who were given up to 
vice. It is still true that Christian morality, 
inspired by divine love, did exert a powerful 
influence in the extension of Christianity ; but not, 
as Gibbon would seem to imply, by virtue of its 
austerity. 

The last cause which Gibbon cites, " the union 
and discipline of the Christian republic," or, as I 
have phrased it, the closely knit ecclesiastical 
organization of the Christians, could have had no 
great influence on the spread of Christianity until 
after the middle of the second century. The 
highly developed organization of the time of 
Cyprian was the growth of more than two cen- 
turies; meanwhile, as early as the beginning of 
Marcus Aurelius' reign, A. D. 161, Christianity 
had been diffused throughout the larger part of 
the Roman empire. 

Allowing all reasonable force and scope to the 



Rise and Spread of Christianity, 43 

causes which Gibbon defines, we must still say, 
first, that all of them taken together are inade- 
quate to account for the manifest effect; and, 
second, that these causes themselves need explana- 
tion. It is fair to add, as Newman has suggested, 
that the combination of these causes needs also to 
be accounted for; this, of course, Gibbon does 
not attempt to do. 

It is impossible, in the brief space of a single 
lecture, to state with any satisfactory fulness the 
causes of the rise of Christianity, and its develop- 
ment during the first three centuries of the Chris- 
tian era; but the principle causes may be 
suggested. 

I. The first of these causes is unquestionably 
the unique and transcendent personality of Jesus 
Christ. Whatever may be our theories as to His 
exact metaphysical nature, this, at least, unpreju- 
diced students of history must admit, that in the 
person of Jesus there came into the world a spirit- 
ual force greater than any other to which the 
history of man witnesses. Attempts have been 
made by critical minds, through all succeeding 
centuries, to classify Jesus, and to give Him His 
true place among the great personalities of the 
world; but these attempts have mainly served to 
illustrate the incapacity of the critics. The story 
may be told in a few simple words, but its signifi- 
cance sweeps beyond the utmost bounds of our 
comprehension. The Baby, born of a Jewish 



44 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

mother in Palestine, grew to man's estate and 
then, announcing Himself as a Messenger sent 
from God, promulgated the doctrine of God and 
the scheme of human life that have ever since 
constituted, and still constitute, the religious and 
moral ideal of the most spiritual minds of the most 
advanced peoples in the world, — an ideal that 
grows in beauty, elevation and power, in propor- 
tion as the spirit of man grows in capacity to 
apprehend the holy and the divine. After three 
or four years of teaching, this Son of Mary left 
the world, committing to a handful of disciples 
the appalling task of conquering the world by 
means of the Message and the Life which He had 
imparted to them. 

In a narrative, the essential truthfulness of which 
has never been successfully impeached, we learn 
that these men, by the power of the inspiration 
received from their Master, were transformed, 
after His death, into missionaries and martyrs of 
the Christian faith. These men, under the influ- 
ence of the ineradicable conviction that God had 
truly revealed Himself to them in the Person and 
teachings of Jesus Christ, did an unexampled 
work. However numerous may be the subsidiary 
causes of the development of Christianity in the 
world, the influence of the personality of Jesus 
Christ must be placed first. In Him, to a degree 
beyond that ever exemplified in any other historic 
personage, God manifested Himself in forms of 



Rise and Spread of Christianity. 45 

human experience, speech, and character. From 
Him a mighty spiritual force streamed forth upon 
humanity. It is no accident that the modern 
world takes its date from the birth of that Baby 
in the Manger at Bethlehem. 

II. The contents of the gospel which the dis- 
ciples of Jesus preached were of such a character 
as to be almost self-propagative, in the midst of 
the conditions that existed in the first century. 
These contents were : the idea of God as the 
infinite spiritual Father and Sovereign of the 
human race ; the declaration of the divine love 
for men, and the divine purpose to save men from 
sin through forgiveness and the impartation of 
spiritual energy; and the presentation of a loving, 
sympathetic, and all-powerful Saviour, who, at once 
divine and human, endured temptation and trial, 
suffered death upon the cross for the salvation of 
sinners, and rose from the dead to make that sal- 
vation complete by the fulfilment to men of the 
hope of eternal life. It was a marvellous gospel 
of hope, — a God who is absolutely holy, and yet 
cares for men; a Saviour who is divine, and yet 
shares in human nature and experience, and 
mingles freely with the poor and outcast and 
wicked, having for them only words of kindness 
and deeds of mercy; and a salvation that gives 
peace to the conscience, strength to the will in its 
pursuit of virtue, and boundless satisfaction to 
the soul. 



46 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

The Christian message appealed to the noblest 
susceptibilities of the human reason. The sublim- 
ity and simplicity of its doctrines of God and Sin 
and Salvation ; the moral purity and beautiful 
beneficence of the Life which it inculcated and 
which Jesus Himself had exemplified; and the 
grandeur of its doctrines of Creation and Provi- 
dence, in which the loftiest teachings of the Old 
Testament are carried up to a higher plane, ap- 
pealed to the intellect and moral sense of men 
with a force immeasurably beyond that of the 
theosophies of the Orient and the philosophies of 
Greece and Rome. 

But the contents of the Christian gospel appealed 
not only to the highest reason of the thoughtful 
few, they appealed also to the sensibility of the 
vast multitude of the poor and the wretched. The 
doctrine of salvation through a suffering yet tri- 
umphant Redeemer brought an efficacious word 
of hope to every man who desired deliverance 
from the evils and miseries of human life. Hos- 
tile critics, like Celsus, urged, as a reproach 
against Christianity, that it attracted to itself the 
lower classes of the people ; but this, in truth, was 
an authentication of its high claims, and a demon- 
stration of its adequacy as a means of salvation. 
The gospel addressed itself to the most extreme 
needs of human life, and its success under this 
severe test was the finest proof of its divine 
origin. 



Rise and Spread of Christianity, 47 

III. The gospel was propagated through per- 
sonal communication. At the beginning, Chris- 
tianity had no schools, no literature, and no wealth. 
It was embodied in a group of people some of 
whom had been witnesses of the life and death 
and resurrection of Jesus, and had learned directly 
from Him the message which they were to utter ; 
and all of whom had received and, as they 
believed, continued to receive, from Him, the im- 
pulse to carry that message to all the world. 
Though they but imperfectly comprehended the 
message and their mission ; though the labors of 
the original apostles had to be supplemented by 
the much wider labors of the Apostle to the 
Gentiles ; yet, as witnesses of Christ and as dis- 
seminators of the faith of Christ, those early 
missionaries, in their personal quality and their 
personal action, take a prominent place among the 
causes of the spread of the Christian faith. 

These men were animated by a passionate and 
persistent love of their Lord. Their characters 
were transformed, and their action was guided by 
His spirit. Their enterprise was inspired and 
directed by the divine purpose which He had 
revealed. With an entire devotion to Him, they 
possessed and uttered a lofty and persistent faith 
amidst wide-spread scepticism ; they exhibited a 
pure morality amidst wide-spread corruption ; and 
they illustrated a disinterested benevolence in con- 
trast with universal selfishness and cruelty. With- 



48 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

out ostentation and without faltering, they poured 
out their lives in self-sacrifice that paused at no 
limits. They at once declared, and in their con- 
duct exhibited, that love for men which was a dom- 
inant characteristic and fundamental element of the 
gospel committed to them. This spirit passed on 
from these witnesses to others who, through their 
testimony, espoused the Christian faith, and they, 
in turn, became missionaries and often martyrs of 
that faith. 

The life of the early Church was, to an extraor- 
dinary degree, a life of love. " Nothing," says 
Uhlhorn, " more astonished the heathen, nothing 
was more incomprehensible to them. ' Behold,' 
they exclaim, ' how they love one another ! ' 
Says a pagan in astonishment, " They love each 
other without knowing each other ! " The early 
Christians not only preached a gospel of love, but 
they exemplified that gospel in their ministry to 
the sick, and the poor, and the wretched. " The 
ancient world," says Uhlhorn again, " was a world 
without love. There was much that was admirable 
in it; it produced great men and heroes, but this 
bond of perfectness was wanting. Whence should 
love have come? Religion taught none, and 
awakened none. It taught love to one's native 
country, obedience to the laws, bravery in war, 
sacrifice for the greatness and honor of the State 
— but not philanthropy." But just this pure 
philanthropy the early Christians taught and prac- 



Rise and Spread of Christianity. 49 

tised. It is a sad illustration of the weakness of 
human nature, under the temptations brought by 
increase in numbers and by prosperity, that 
scarcely was the Church successful in its deadly 
struggle with heathenism, when it was rent by 
internecine strife. The development of Christian 
dogma began the long era of bitter theological 
controversy, with its accompaniments of division 
and enmity and conflict, that seems only now 
slowly drawing toward a close. But before theo- 
logical strife began, and even afterwards, and in 
spite of it, the great body of Christians exemplified 
the power and exhibited the beauty of a love 
before which multitudes of heathen sank down in 
astonished and willing subjection. There are 
many cases on record of persecutors being con- 
quered by the gentleness and sweetness as well as 
the fortitude of their victims. 

In the course of time, the Christians appropri- 
ated for their enterprise the various means of 
literature and education and political influence; 
the development of ecclesiastical organization also 
became serviceable to their missionary purpose; 
but during the nearly three hundred years before 
the Church, in the person of Constantine, came 
into unquestioned power in the State, — during 
those long and weary years in which the Christian 
faith was outlawed, and Christian believers were 
subject to all kinds of ignorant and fanatical, or 
deliberate and malicious, persecution, when upon 

4 



50 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

her bowed and patient head the Church received 
storm after storm of bloody oppression, — during 
all this time, the chief forces by which, in the face 
of all opposition and through all difficulties, Chris- 
tianity was extended were : the influence of the 
personality of its Founder, the appeal of the con- 
tents of the gospel which He gave, and the testi- 
mony and lives of His disciples and their converts. 

It was a struggle for existence by a spiritual 
faith against the customs, traditions, laws, social 
organizations, vices, prejudices, and even religions 
of the entire world. 

The triumph of the Christian faith, in spite of 
these obstacles, in spite of the imperfections of its 
adherents, and in spite of the corruptions that 
developed within the Church, is a testimony, 
which no argument, however subtle and strong, 
has force to break, — a testimony to the reality 
and persistence of the divine impulse which was 
imparted to men in and through the person of 
Jesus Christ. This triumph was not the triumph 
merely of creed, — the Church has had many 
creeds ; nor of a system of ecclesiastical organiza- 
tion, — the Church has illustrated many systems; 
but of a spirit of truth and a life of love emanating 
from God and becoming the inspiring and archi- 
tectonic forces of human progress and of all sub- 
sequent civilization. 

It is at once a modest and a reasonable conclu- 
sion to which one of the ablest and wisest Chris- 



Rise and Spread of Christianity. 51 

tian teachers in the middle of the third century 
thus comes : " In all Greece and in all barbarous 
races within our world, there are tens of thousands 
who have left their national laws and customary 
gods for the law of Moses and the word of Jesus 
Christ; though to adhere to that law is to incur 
the hatred of idolaters, and to have embraced that 
word is to incur the risk of death as well. And 
considering how, in a few years and with no great 
store of teachers, in spite of the attacks which have 
cost us life and property, the preaching of that 
word has found its way into every part of the 
world, so that Greeks and barbarians, wise and 
unwise, adhere to the religion of Jesus, — doubtless 
it is a work greater than any work of man" 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EARLY 
CHURCH. 

TN the last lecture we considered the rise of 
Christianity and its extension throughout the 
Roman empire during the first three centuries, and 
the conditions and causes of its development. We 
are now to consider the development of the Chris- 
tian Church as an institution. At first the Church 
and Christianity were practically identical, but the 
spiritual force of the gospel soon overflowed all 
boundaries. There probably has not been a time 
since the beginning of the Christian era, with the 
exception of the earliest apostolic period, in which 
Christianity and the Church have been exactly 
co-extensive. 

In our study of the organization of the early 
Church we are tracing the process by which the 
Christian life became organic in human society, 
and observing the various functions which it devel- 
oped in its practical struggle for existence. At 
first Christianity existed without organization. The 
early Church was a plastic mass, without officers 
and without specific functions, but unified and 
vitalized by a common love for Christ, and led by 
the apostles as original hearers of Christ and wit- 



Organization of the Early Church. 53 

nesses of His resurrection. But this mass of reli- 
gious protoplasm, or life-stuff, with strong powers 
of assimilation, quickly became organic. The 
organization was at first extremely simple, elastic, 
and free. The exigencies of the situation, however, 
combined with the inevitable tendency of human 
nature, soon produced a marked change. 

Many persons display great fondness for attempts 
to trace back the highly differentiated and elab- 
orately organized ecclesiastical systems of the 
present day to the time of Christ, or at least to 
the time of the apostles. The attempts are inter- 
esting, and on the whole, harmless, but they are 
also vain. Jesus wrote no book, appointed no 
officers, in the proper sense of that word, and 
established no institution. He gave His thought, 
His life, — in a word, Himself, to His disciples and 
to the world. His gospel contained within itself 
the principle of indestructible vitality. It was not 
a religion, but a revelation and a life. These have 
inspired religion, created institutions, developed 
resources, and become organic in manifold forms. 
The disciples seem at first to have had no idea of 
forming a church or elaborating a system ; full of 
the faith and enthusiasm which they had derived 
from the personal Christ, they went forth among 
men preaching the gospel of divine love and for- 
giveness and eternal hope. The sphere of their 
labors at first was Jerusalem, and there thousands 
of converts soon gathered about the witnesses. 



54 From Jerusalem to Niccea* 

The love which the gospel of Christ awakened 
showed itself in deeds of chanty. The ecclesia, or 
assembly of the believers, became practically com- 
munistic. Those who had property shared it with 
those who had none. Love ruled. The voluntary 
communism that appeared was not universal, but it 
was prophetic, and it discloses to us the artless- 
ness of the infant Church. Of this communism 
Uhlhorn says : " There could be no falser repre- 
sentation of it than to think of it as an institution. 
. . . We might as well speak of the institution of 
a community of goods in a family. But as in a 
family the consciousness of belonging to each 
other is so strong as entirely to subordinate the 
individual possessions of each member, so was it 
in the primitive Church." It was, he continues, 
" a noble alms-giving, a free equalization of pos- 
sessions, carried out in the glow of first love to the 
largest-hearted and greatest extent, and differing, 
not in kind, but only in degree and extent, from 
what we subsequently meet with in the church at 
Jerusalem and elsewhere." 

The spectacle which confronts us, as we study 
the life of those early Christian days, is that of a 
multitude of men and women rejoicing in a new 
faith which as yet did not separate them from the 
old faith, but expanded and enriched it with a new 
sense of the divine nearness and love ; frequenting 
the temple and synagogues for worship as they had 
previously done ; gathering in the customary places 



Organization of the Early Church. 55 

of popular assembly in order to hear over and 
over again the testimony of the apostles to the 
resurrection of Jesus ; and meeting in groups at 
the houses of believers for mutuak comfort and 
edification, and to commemorate their recently 
departed Lord by breaking bread in the Eucha- 
ristic supper. 

In all this multitude no one had any authority 
save the apostles, and their authority, natural and 
spontaneous, was due to their personal experience 
and prestige as the immediate disciples of Jesus. 
There was no new ritual, there were no distinctions 
of clergy and laity, and there were no ordinances, 
in the common sense of that term. Any believer 
might preach ; indeed, it is apparent that most 
believers became involuntary preachers of the gos- 
pel. Any believer might baptize, and any believer 
might administer the Communion. It was the 
childhood of the Church. The function of the 
apostles was not primarily that of officers, but 
rather that of witnesses ; but the history of the 
apostles, so far as it is known, shows that only 
those who had qualifications for leadership and the 
work of organization made any permanent impres- 
sion upon the Church. The increase of the num- 
ber of believers in Christ very early called for the 
exercise of leadership and the establishment of 
some sort of tuition; and the evolution of the 
Christian Church went on under the influence of 
the necessities of the case. 



56 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

Primitive Christianity, in so far as it was a 
religion, was distinguished from most other reli- 
gions of the world by being non-sacerdotal. It 
had no priests and no sacraments. Neither bap- 
tism nor the Communion was at first a sacrament. 
The new faith, by its very nature, implied the im- 
mediate communion of every soul with God. The 
only priesthood was the universal priesthood of 
believers. It is a significant fact that in the 
New Testament writings the sacerdotal title is 
never once conferred on the officers of the infant 
Church. 

Christianity, though it must inevitably take on 
organization, and adopt methods of teaching and 
administration, and thus develop characteristic 
institutions and adequate instruments for its work, 
was purely and simply a life from God and in God, 
revealed and mediated by Jesus Christ. None 
of the institutions that have become so familiar 
to us as features of the objective manifestation of 
Christianity were essential to it. 

" This," says Lightfoot, " is the Christian ideal : 
a holy season extending the whole year round ; 
a temple confined only by the limits of the hab- 
itable world ; a priesthood co-extensive with the 
human race." 

The Church, at first purely a voluntary assembly, 
retained this simple, elementary character during 
the time of the apostles. In Jerusalem and else- 
where, under the guidance of the apostles, these 



Organization of the Early Chtirch. 57 

voluntary assemblies chose committees or boards 
of administration that are designated as presbyters, 
or bishops, which means simply "elders," or "over- 
seers." Among the Jewish churches, the syna- 
gogue with its board of elders naturally served as 
a model ; in the Gentile churches, the society, or 
guild, which was common among the Gentiles, 
with its committee of managers, naturally served 
as a model. 

Admission to the Church was by the simplest 
process imaginable. There were no dogmatic tests 
of membership, there was no doctrinal examina- 
tion, and there were no creeds. Confession of 
belief in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God, 
was followed immediately by baptism in the name 
of the Lord Jesus. Baptism apparently might be 
administered by any believer. After the develop- 
ment of the clergy, it was usually administered by 
one of that body ; but as late as the end of the 
second century, baptism by laymen was enjoined 
by Tertullian whenever none of the clergy could 
be present. The canons of the Roman Catholic 
Church still permit a layman or even a woman to 
baptize ; at least, baptism so administered, if the 
proper matter and form be used, is pronounced 
valid. The primitive form of baptism was immer- 
sion, and for the first thirteen centuries this was 
the form almost universally observed. The testi- 
mony of Stanley on this point is incontrovertible. 
" Baptism," he says, " was not only a bath, but a 



58 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

plunge, — an entire submersion in the deep water, 
a leap as into the rolling sea or the rushing river, 
where for the moment the waves close over the 
bather's head, and he emerges again as from a 
momentary grave ; or it was the shock of a shower- 
bath, — a rush of water passed over the whole per- 
son from capacious vessels, so as to wrap the 
recipient as within the veil of a splashing cararact." 
In another place he declares that " for the first 
thirteen centuries the almost universal practice of 
baptism was that of which we read in the New 
Testament, and which is the very meaning of the 
word ' baptize,' — that those who were baptized 
were plunged, submerged, immersed into the water. 
That practice is still continued in Eastern churches. 
In the Western church it still lingers amongst 
Roman Catholics in the solitary instance of the 
cathedral at Milan; amongst Protestants in the 
numerous sect of the Baptists. It lasted long into 
the Middle Ages. Even the Icelanders, who at 
first shrank from the waters of their freezing lakes, 
were reconciled when they found that they could 
use the warm water of the Geysers. And the cold 
climate of Russia has not been found an obstacle 
to its continuance throughout that vast empire- 
Even in the Church of England it is still observed 
in theory. The rubric in the Public Baptism for 
Infants enjoins that, unless for special causes, they 
are to be dipped, not sprinkled. Edward the Sixth 
and Elizabeth were both immersed." 



Organization of the Early Church. 59 

As I have already said, under the exigencies of 
the Christian communities various offices arose. 
Capacity to hold office was regarded as a gift from 
the Holy Spirit and was called a charisma, which 
means literally a gift of grace. There were gifts 
of ruling, of teaching, of prophesying, of tongues, 
of discerning the spirits, and of evangelizing. The 
apostles themselves evidently regarded these func- 
tions as gifts. 

As yet the entire body of Christians was upon 
one level, indicated by the phrase, " all ye are 
brethren." Says Hatch: "The distinctions which 
St. Paul makes between Christians are based, not 
upon office, but upon varieties of spiritual power. 
They are caused by the diversity of the operations 
of the Holy Spirit. They are consequently per- 
sonal and individual. They do not mark off class 
from class, but one Christian from another. Some 
of these spiritual powers are distinguished from 
others by a greater visible and outward effect ; but 
they are all the same in kind." 

Among these various offices two very socfn be- 
came tolerably well-defined, and out of one of 
these developed a third ; and these three ultimately 
became the three characteristic and permanent 
offices of the Christian Church. The history of 
the growth of these three offices is the history of 
the organization of the Church. 

I have already alluded to the creation of boards 
of administration consisting of presbyters or bish- 



60 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

ops ; but it will be advisable to take up the three 
offices and study them somewhat in detail. The 
apostles were at first the sole directors of the Chris- 
tian communities which were created by their 
efforts ; but the multiplication of Christian com- 
munities outside of Palestine made this personal 
apostolic supervision impracticable. The necessity 
for the creation of some sort of administration is 
therefore apparent. During the lifetime of the 
apostles there existed two classes of administrative 
officers : deacons and presbyters, or bishops. The 
latter were also called shepherds, or pastors. Only 
these two kinds of officers appear during apostolic 
times. Between the epistles of St. Paul and the 
epistles of Ignatius (110-117 A. D.), a period of 
about fifty years, we have little information on the 
growth of the Church. Before the middle of the 
second century each church, or organized Chris- 
tian community, had three orders of ministers : its 
bishop, its presbyters, and its deacons, — though 
this is certainly true, at that early date, only of the 
churches in Syria and Asia Minor, and the church 
in Rome. 

The first of these three offices which appears in 
the Acts of the Apostles is that of the deacons. 
Following the chronological order, therefore, we 
shall consider, — 

1. Deacons. — The word " deacon," Std/covo?, means 
" minister," " servant," " attendant." The origin of 
the word is uncertain. It was once thought to be 



Organization of the Early Church. 61 

derived from the compound hid and /coW, which 
would mean " raising dust by hastening." In the 
New Testament the word Bcd/covos is used many- 
times in the general sense of " minister " or " ser- 
vant," and only three times (Phil. i. i, and I Tim. 
iii. 8, 12) in the technical sense of " deacon." The 
verb Sta/coveco is used many times to designate 
the act of ministering or serving, and but twice 
(1 Tim. iii. 10, 13) to designate the exercise of the 
office of deacon. This term is applied to Peter's 
mother-in-law, who, after she had been healed of 
the fever by Jesus, it is said, " rose and ministered 
unto them" (Scrj/covei, Mark i. 31). The substan- 
tive Biaxovia is often used in the New Testament 
to designate ministry, or service, or administration ; 
but never once with the technical sense of deacon- 
ship. The word, however, was soon appropriated 
to a specific office in the Church. That office, the 
diaconate, appears to have had its origin in the 
incident told in the sixth chapter of the Acts. In 
that chapter we have a most interesting glimpse of 
the first Christian community, — a glimpse which 
reveals to us the significant fact that the earliest 
activities of the Church were those of practical 
charity. A dispute had arisen between the He- 
brews and Hellenists over the matter of providing 
food for the widows and other dependents of the 
Christian community. The apostles, powerfully 
urged by their inward impulse to the work of 
preaching, sought to be relieved from the care of 



62 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

this administration, which up to this time had 
rested entirely upon them. They therefore asked 
for the appointment of " seven men of good repute, 
full of the spirit of wisdom," whom they proposed 
to appoint over the business ; meantime they would 
give themselves more freely to the ministry of the 
word. 

We have here two functions brought into sug- 
gestive comparison, in reference to which the same 
word, Sia/covia, is used. These are the ministry of 
the tables (focucovCa roiv rpaire^wv'), and the minis- 
try of the word (hicucovla rov \070u). The latter of 
these the apostles appropriated to themselves ; the 
former they referred to the " seven good men "who 
were chosen for that purpose. These seven men 
are never called deacons in the New Testament, but 
only " the Seven." Two of them, Stephen and 
Philip, almost immediately became distinguished 
preachers and evangelists, though preaching was 
not any part of the function for which they were 
specifically chosen. Assuming that the diaconate 
originated in the appointment of these seven men, 
we see that it sprang out of the earliest needs of 
the Christian community in Jerusalem. The're was 
no office corresponding to it in the synagogue, as 
was clearly the case with the presbyterate. In the 
epistles of St. Paul the term " deacons" occurs in 
such a way as to indicate that the office was early 
established. The fact that " the Seven " were 
never called deacons, and that several, at least, were 



Organization of the Early Church. 63 

laborious and successful preachers of the gospel, 
one of whom, Stephen, on account of the hostility 
which his preaching stirred up among the unchris- 
tian Jews in Jerusalem, became the first martyr of 
the Church, has led some to infer that their ap- 
pointment does not mark the beginning of the 
diaconate; but on the whole it is reasonable to 
conclude that the appointment of" the Seven" to 
administer the charity of the church in Jerusalem 
was the real origin of the office. Against this, 
Uhlhorn contends that " the Seven" were not the 
original deacons, but the first elders, citing in proof 
the fact that St. Luke never again mentions the 
Seven in the church of Jerusalem, although he 
does mention presbyters, and that the Evangelist 
gives no other account of the institution of the 
presbytery; and he maintains that " the manage- 
ment of works of mercy, of alms-giving, was never 
conceded to the deacons. It was in the hands of 
the presbyters and afterwards of the bishops, and 
the deacons only gave their assistance. And this 
is, in general, the position of deacons in the or- 
ganism of the Church." He also claims that orig- 
inally the deacons were not appointed officers, but 
volunteers, who freely gave their services to the 
Church. " Those," he says, " who had the requisite 
gifts and love, rendered of their own accord the 
service afterwards allotted to the deacons, and it 
was not till the increase of the Church rendered 
this needful that a regular office grew up out of 



64 From yerusalem to Niccza. 

the free gift and love." In his view the diaconate 
is an office which properly belongs to any Chris- 
tian who will fill it. In this the deacon differs 
radically from the presbyter. " Not every Chris- 
tian is a presbyter ; but every one is really and 
naturally a deacon, a servant of all." 

It was the main function of deacons (and of 
deaconesses, for we read of the latter also in the 
New Testament) to look after the poor and dis- 
pense the gifts of the Church under the supervision 
of the presbyters or bishops. " The diaconate," 
says Stanley, " was the oldest ecclesiastical func- 
tion, the most ancient of the holy orders. It was 
grounded on the elevation of the care of the poor 
to the rank of a religious service. It was a proc- 
lamation of the truth that social questions are to 
take the first place amongst religious instruction. 
It was the recognition of political economy as a 
part of religious knowledge." 

Deacons are always spoken of in conjunction 
with presbyters or bishops. The office passed 
from the church in Jerusalem to other churches, 
and, in 62 A. D., we find deacons as well as 
presbyters in the Philippian church. In later 
times the deacons became stewards of the prop- 
erty of the church and of the funds belonging to 
widows and orphans. It was their duty to visit 
the sick and the afflicted and report to the bishop. 
In time of persecution they visited confessors in 
prison to bear to them the messages and gifts of 



Organization of the Early Church. 65 

their brethren, and to minister, as far as was allowed, 
to their needs; and they buried the bodies of 
martyrs. The discipline of the church was also 
intrusted to them as ministers to the bishop, and 
under his direction they sought out, reproved, and 
if possible recovered, offenders. 

For a long time it would appear that the number 
of deacons in any single community was limited to 
seven. This fact seems to indicate that the office 
had its origin in the appointment of Stephen and 
Philip and their companions. In 315 A. D. a 
canon of the Council of Neo-Caesarea enacted 
that there should be no more than seven deacons 
in any society. A certain latitude was secured, 
however, by the appointment of subdeacons. 

2. Presbyters. — " Presbyter," or " elder," 7rpe- 
o-ftvrepos, is a Jewish term and indicates a well- 
known office in the synagogue. The Acts of the 
Apostles gives us no account of the institution of 
the presbytery, probably because the office was 
naturally and immediately transferred from the 
synagogue to the church. 

The persecution of the Christians which followed 
the stoning of Stephen had the result of spreading 
the gospel to Samaria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, and 
Antioch in Syria. Indirectly it had the further 
result of giving to the Church that incomparable 
missionary genius, St. Paul. 

James, the brother of John, who had been practi- 
cally the head of the church in Jerusalem, was put 

5 



66 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

to death by Herod Agrippa. The persecution in- 
creased the felt need of a recognized head of the 
church, and James, the brother of Jesus, by virtue of 
his personal character as well as his relationship to 
the Lord, became the president of the Jerusalem 
community. The apostle Peter had devoted him- 
self to preaching the gospel beyond Jerusalem, 
but he returned to Jerusalem, where, with James 
and John, he participated in the Council that 
assembled to consider the questions which arose 
through the conversion of the Gentiles and the 
formation of Gentile Christian communities under 
the preaching of Paul and Barnabas. 

Personal apostolic supervision, even of Pales- 
tinian Christian communities, was of necessity 
limited. The apostles naturally were the first 
points of attack in times of persecution, and, be- 
sides, the growth of the churches soon carried them 
beyond the ability of so small a number of men 
to look after their needs. There appear to have 
arisen in the churches bodies of men to whom was 
committed the duty of supervision and admin- 
istration. These undoubtedly were presbyters, or 
elders, and following closely the model furnished 
by the synagogue, the presbytery was a sort of 
local sanhedrim. Paul and Barnabas, in their 
missionary work, at first confined themselves to 
their fellow-countrymen in Gentile lands ; but 
soon they were driven out of the synagogues, and 
then they began rapidly to form Christian com- 



Organization of the Early Church. 67 

munities among the Gentiles. These communities 
apparently were modelled after the societies or 
guilds that were so common at that time. Over 
these communities the apostles appointed presby- 
ters, or elders, as the Jews would call them, or, as 
they would more naturally be called in Gentile 
communities, overseers, that is, bishops. 

These presbyters, or bishops, were to watch 
over the Christian flocks, to direct them in their 
worship, and serve to the poor. They also exer- 
cised discipline and looked after the morals of the 
Christians. The presbyters were not specifically 
teachers, though a presbyter who had the ne- 
cessary qualifications might exercise the teaching 
function. Among the presbyters, and outside of 
that body, there were teachers consisting of men 
who showed themselves possessed of the gifts of 
prophecy and aptness to teach. 

The eldership rapidly developed into a perma- 
nent congregational office. The development 
through which this office passed leads us to the 
consideration of — 

3. Bishops. — The word "bishop," eirCcr/coiro?, is 
a pagan word and means, literally, overseer. The 
first function which it designated was one that 
grew out of the charitable activities of the church. 
The overseer received, and through the deacons 
administered, the church funds for the poor. 
During the first century, at least until after the 
death of St. Paul, there was no distinction be- 



68 From Jerusalem to Niccza, 

tween presbyters and overseers, or bishops; but 
probably as early as the last years of the century, 
and possibly with the sanction and under the 
guidance of St. John in Asia Minor, one of the 
presbyters or bishops in each church became 
chairman or president, and thus the later bishop 
in embryo. 

At first the terms "bishop" and "presbyter" 
were interchangeable ; then the bishop was called 
also " presbyter," though the presbyter was not 
called " bishop." The title, previously common 
to all the presbyters, was thus appropriated to 
one. This appropriation, however, could scarcely 
have taken place much before the end of the first 
or the early years of the second century; certainly 
this is true of the Christian communities among the 
heathen. " As late," says Lightfoot, " as the year 
70 no distinct signs of the episcopal government 
had appeared in Gentile Christendom." Before 
the middle of the second century, however, we find 
the office of bishop quite clearly defined. 

In the letters of Ignatius (110-117 A. D.) the 
episcopate appears in so advanced a stage of 
development as to indicate that the development 
had been going on in the East for some years. 
This development was perhaps stimulated among 
Jewish Christians by the fall of Jerusalem and 
the loss of a visible centre. But in all Christian 
communities the need of some unifying force in 
organization and administration was early felt; 



Organization of the Early Church, 69 

this need become more urgent as, through the 
increase of pagan hostility, the existence of the 
church seemed to grow more and more pre- 
carious. In Asia Minor the episcopate, as I have 
already suggested, may have had its beginning 
under the eye and even with the initiative of St. 
John, though, it must be admitted, of this there is 
no evidence. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who met 
a martyr's death in 155 or 156 A. D., at the ad- 
vanced age of eighty-six years, was the disciple of 
St. John. As early as 110 Polycarp is addressed 
as the bishop of Smyrna by Ignatius ; and it is 
supposed that Polycarp was appointed to this 
office by St. John. At any rate it is clear that 
the episcopacy developed rapidly in Asia Minor, 
though in Macedonia and Greece it was of much 
slower growth. It is a fair inference that there 
were no bishops in these latter countries as late as 
125 A. d., or even later. In Corinth the episcopate 
was established probably as the result of feuds and 
controversies in the Corinthian church, though it 
was not in existence there as late as 97, the date of 
Clement's letter from Rome. In Rome, if we are 
to attach any significance to the silence of Ignatius 
in his letter to the Romans, the episcopate had not 
developed as late as no or 117; but it must have 
appeared soon after this time. Its growth in Rome 
was vigorous and rapid. 

The idea of the episcopate, as a continuation 
of the apostolate and its authority in the Church,. 



jo From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

was suggested as early as the time of Irenaeus 
(177-200). The Christian churches in Gaul were 
planted from Asia Minor, there being a racial 
kinship between the Galatians and the Gauls, 
and probably they began with the episcopal 
form of organization. The episcopate could not 
have been definitively established in Gaul at this 
time, however, since even Irenaeus uses the terms 
"bishops" and " presbyters" interchangeably. In 
Africa, which was christianized from Rome, episco- 
pacy was introduced early and rapidly extended. 
In the time of Hippolytus, near the beginning of 
the third century, the idea of the episcopate 
had developed far toward the hierarchical view 
which it attained under Cyprian in the middle 
of the same century. In 189 Victor, the bishop 
of Rome, first claimed universal dominion. This 
claim was vigorously and somewhat scornfully 
denied by Tertullian, and a similar claim was 
ignored or denied by Cyprian fifty years later. 

Quite early the president-bishop began to lay 
claim to the teaching as well as to the ruling 
function. The presbyters retained the position of 
advisers of the bishop, and later shared also in the 
sacerdotal functions, and, during the vacancy of the 
episcopal office, took the guidance of the church. 
In preaching and the care of souls they acted on 
the commission and with the approbation of the 
bishop. Already that process was begun which 
Hatch thus describes: " By one of those slow and 



Organization of the Early Church. 71 

silent revolutions which the lapse of many cen- 
turies brings about in political as well as in 
religious communities, the ancient conception of 
the office as essentially disciplinary and collegiate, 
has been superseded by a conception ' of it in 
which not only is a single presbyter competent to 
discharge all a presbyter's functions, but ,in which 
also those functions are primarily, not those of 
discipline, but the * ministration of the Word and 
Sacraments.' " 

In early times there was a bishop wherever in 
later times we find a parish church, and the chief 
function of the bishop was one of administration ; 
but gradually he absorbed also the functions of 
administering baptism and the Communion. An 
interesting survival of this appears in the rite of 
Confirmation. " No baptism," says Hatch, " is 
theoretically complete until the bishop has taken 
that part in it which once followed immediately 
upon immersion, but which is now come to have 
the semblance of a separate rite, and is known 
as Confirmation." 

The development of the episcopate was not 
uniform ; as we have seen, it was more rapid in 
Asia Minor than it was in Gaul and Greece. 
Even in the fifth century it was the custom of the 
bishop to address the presbyters as " fellow-pres- 
byters ; " and this custom was not questioned till 
the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. Jerome, who wrote about the end of the 



72 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

fourth century, says: "Bishops and presbyters 
are the same, for the one is a term of dignity, the 
other of age." Again, " If any one thinks the 
opinion that bishops and presbyters are the same 
to be, not the view of the Scriptures, but my own, 
let him study the words of the apostle to the 
Philippians." Still again, " As presbyters know 
that by the custom of the church they are subject 
to him who shall have been set over them, so let 
bishops also be aware that they are superior to 
presbyters more owing to custom than to any 
actual ordinance of the Lord." In another place 
he says: " At Alexandria, from Mark the Evange- 
list down to the times of the bishops Heraclas 
(233-249) and Dionysius (249-265), the presbyters 
always nominated as bishops one chosen out of 
their own body and placed in a higher grade ; 
just as if an army were to appoint a general, or 
deacons were to choose from their own body one 
whom they knew to be diligent and call him 
archdeacon." 

At first presbyters, or bishops, and deacons 
were not distinguished from the laity, save by 
the fact of their exercising certain functions in 
the service of the church. They still pursued 
their customary secular vocations. Even in the 
third century we find Cyprian cautioning the 
clergy not to give so much time to matters of 
business, and protesting against their acceptance 
of civil offices. Although the distinction between 



Organization of the Early Church. 73 

clergy and laity must have begun to appear early 
in the second century, even as late as the time 
of Cyprian (248-258 A. D.) the laity were not 
entirely excluded from a share in the management 
of the church. 

With the growth of the hierarchical idea, the 
rural bishops, who naturally deferred to bishops 
of metropolitan cities of the Roman provinces, 
looking to them for advice and guidance, gradually 
became subordinate to them in authority as well 
as in dignity. This was due chiefly to the supe- 
rior rank of the metropolitan cities. The theory 
of apostolic succession, suggested by Irenaeus and 
elaborated by Cyprian, naturally emphasised the 
importance of those cities which had been the 
scenes of apostolic labor, and the bishops of those 
cities soon took precedence of the ordinary metro- 
politans. To these the designation, " archbishop," 
which at first was applied to all metropolitans, was 
ultimately confined. The influence of the imperial 
idea upon the Church appears in the deference 
which, particularly in the Western churches, was 
early paid to the church in Rome. The bishop 
whose seat was in the capital of the world naturally 
drew to himself a consideration like that given to 
no other official of the Church. The association of 
the apostles, St. Paul and St. Peter, with the Roman 
church, and, later, the tradition that St. Peter was 
the founder of that church, tended also to increase 
the authority of its bishop. The claim that St 



74 From Jerusalem to N ices a. 

Peter founded the church in Rome, was not heard 
until 170 A. D. ; it was a baseless claim, but it had 
a powerful charm for the minds of men, especially 
among Western Christians, and in later centuries 
it was urged with such vigor that finally it became 
dominant throughout the West. Now for many 
centuries it has been the proud boast of the 
Roman pontiffs that they are the successors of 
St. Peter. But, while the Roman bishop had 
considerable influence as early as the third cen- 
tury, no dictation from him was allowed during 
the period to which our study is confined ; nor 
was it ever allowed in the Eastern Church. Even 
Cyprian, who may be considered the founder of 
the theory that the bishops are the divinely or- 
dained successors of the apostles, maintained that 
the bishops are on a footing of perfect equality; 
" each of them is a successor of Peter, and an heir 
of the promise given indeed to Peter first, but given 
to h\m for all the others? 

In the controversy over the Easter question, 
the high-handed course taken by Victor in excom- 
municating what were called the Quarto-deciman 
churches (the churches that observed the four- 
teenth Nisan as the anniversary of Jesus' death) 
was condemned even by the churches who were 
in agreement with him, and his excommunication 
was disregarded. 

The development of the episcopate into a 
closely knit hierarchy, a process that was well on 



Organization of the Early Church. 75 

its way by the middle of the third century, was 
due in part to the necessity for unity and harmony 
in the midst of the distractions which beset the 
Church, and to the desire for the preservation of 
orthodoxy. The rise of heresies and sects in the 
Church, particularly the inroads of Gnosticism in 
its various forms, led to a demand for the enforce- 
ment of a " rule of faith." This " rule of faith " 
was the apostolic tradition, supposed to be pre- 
served especially by bishops who occupied apos- 
tolic seats. By the time of Irenaeus this had 
grown substantially into the form which was 
known in after times as " the Apostles' Creed." 
The episcopate thus became the centre of unity 
and the depositary of apostolic tradition. The 
growth of the idea of the episcopate during the 
first three centuries has been clearly and succinctly 
sketched by Lightfoot. In the following words 
I summarize his statement. With Ignatius, the 
bishop is the centre and bond of ecclesiastical 
unity; with Irenaeus he is the depositary of apos- 
tolic tradition; with Cyprian he is the absolute 
vicegerent of Christ in things spiritual. " Cyp- 
rian," he says, " regards the bishop as exclusively 
the representative of God to the congregation and 
hardly, if at all, as the representative of the con- 
gregation before God. The bishop is the indis- 
pensable channel of divine grace, the indispensable 
bond of Christian brotherhood. The episcopate is 
not so much the roof, as the foundation stone of 



j 6 From Jerusalem to Nice? a. 

the ecclesiastical edifice; not so much the legiti- 
mate development, as the primary condition of the 
Church. The bishop is appointed directly by God, 
is responsible directly to God, is inspired directly 
from God." 

The development of the hierarchy in the Church 
was naturally accompanied or followed by the rise 
and development of sacerdotalism. The sacer- 
dotal idea is entirely absent from the New Testa- 
ment, and also from the writings of the Apostolic 
Fathers. Ignatius never regards the ministry as 
a sacerdotal office. Polycarp knows nothing of 
sacerdotal duties or privileges. Justin Martyr, 
though he speaks at length of the Eucharistic 
offerings, says nothing of any sacerdotal functions 
save such as belong to the whole Christian body, 
— all are priests. Irenaeus also, and Clement of 
Alexandria, and even Origen, are free from any 
trace of sacerdotalism. 

The sacerdotal idea appears germinally near the 
close of the second century. Tertu-llian is the 
first who asserts sacerdotal claims on behalf of 
the ministry, and even he seems to hold that the 
church, for convenience, has entrusted to the 
clergy sacerdotal functions which belong to 
the whole congregation. Says Ritschl : " The 
distinction between the active and the passive 
members of the congregation, — in other words, 
the Catholic conception of the priesthood, — is 
foreign to the first two centuries." 



Organization of the Early Church, jj 

.Cyprian however, advanced to a definite sacer- 
dotal position, and from his time on, the priestly 
conception of the Christian ministry grew until it 
completely dominated the office. For nearly or 
quite two centuries the office of the Christian 
minister was representative : it was that of an 
ambassador, and that of a teacher and leader; 
afterwards it became vicarial, and, instead of 
ambassadors of God, the priests were His vicars. 

An important feature of ecclesiastical adminis- 
tration is the Synod or Council. Diocesan synods 
appear to have been held very early in Asia 
Minor. Traces of such bodies are found as early 
as the middle of the second century. In the third 
century synods were frequent, though none rose 
above the dignity of provincial councils. During 
the latter half of this century they were held at least 
annually, in almost every province of Christen- 
dom ; in Asia Minor they were held semi-annually. 
These synods were called by metropolitan bishops 
to deal with important questions of doctrine and 
administration. They were composed of bishops, 
presbyters and deacons, and sometimes laymen 
also by invitation; but usually only bishops signed 
the decrees, and gradually the lay element was 
excluded. Important synodal decisions were com- 
municated to distant bishops, and thus these 
bodies tended to promote unity in the doctrine 
and practice of the Church, and accelerated the 
development and centralization of ecclesiastical 



78 From yerusalem to Niccea. 

authority. From these decisions there was grad- 
ually formed a body of ecclesiastical law. 

A synod was alleged to have been held in Sicily 
against the Gnostic, Heracleon, as early as 125 
A. D., and another in Rome under the bishop 
Telesphorus before 139; but there is no historical 
evidence of either, and, besides, Heracleon, who 
is the earliest known commentator on the Fourth 
Gospel, scarcely could have taught earlier than 150. 
The earliest synods that are known were called to 
deliberate on the Montanist heresy in Asia Minor 
about 156, or a little later. Toward the end of the 
century synods were held in Palestine, Pontus, Gaul, 
Mesopotamia, at Ephesus, and in Rome (under Vic- 
tor), in connection with the controversy over the 
time for observing the Easter festival. Still other 
synods of which we have some record were held 
concerning the validity of heretical baptism ; the 
heresies of Beryllus, Sabellius, and Paul of Samo- 
sata; the irregular ordination of Origen ; and va- 
rious other exigencies of church discipline. There 
was a synod in North Africa about 215 A. D., one 
in Iconeum in 256, and seven under Cyprian in 
Carthage between 248 and 256. A council at 
Elvira in Spain, in 305 or 306 A. D., issued the first 
recorded decree on the celibacy of the clergy. In 
Aries, in Southern Gaul, a synod was held in 314 
in which Britain and nearly, or quite, all of the 
other Western provinces were represented by 
bishops. 



Organization of the Early Church. 79 

There was no CEcumenical Council until after 
the conversion of Constantine. The Council of 
Nicaea, in 325, was the first of a series of great 
councils, the decisions of which shaped the doc- 
trine and ecclesiastical policy of the Church for 
many centuries, and still shape the policy of the 
Church throughout a large part of Christendom. 

It remains -for me to give some account of the 
worship of the early Church and of the develop- 
ment of sacramentalism in the estimation and use 
of the Christian ordinances. The religious life of 
the early Church, as well as its organization, was 
more or less influenced by the conditions amidst 
which it rose. In Palestine, where the churches 
were composed exclusively of Jews, there was at 
first very little change in the forms of worship. 
Christians frequented the temple and the syna- 
gogues, and continued to observe the Sabbath and 
the Passover. 

In the churches beyond Palestine both syna- 
gogues and Gentile religious associations probably 
influenced the religious customs of Christians, for 
in these churches there were both Jews and 
Gentiles. The influence of the Jewish element in 
the churches of Asia Minor is very apparent in 
the controversy over the time for the celebration 
of the Easter festival which agitated Christendom 
during the latter part of the second and the whole 
of the third centuries. The churches in Asia 
Minor contended that the annual commemoration 



8o From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

of the death of Christ should be observed on the 
fourteenth of the Hebrew month Nisan, regardless 
of the day of the week on which this might fall. 
Accordingly, on the fourteenth of Nisan they ended 
the Lenten fast with the celebration of the Eucharist 
as the Christian's paschal feast. In Rome, how- 
ever, and the churches of the West, it was con- 
tended that the Hebrew calendar, should be 
discarded, and that the observance of Easter 
should always be upon the Sunday following the 
first full moon after the vernal equinox. The 
controversy over this question is known as the 
Quarto-deciman controversy. It practically ended 
with the Council of Nicaea in 325. 

The celebration of Easter as a Christian festival, 
it should be said, appears not to have arisen, or 
to have become at all general, until sometime in 
the second century. There is no trace of this 
celebration either in the New Testament or the 
writings of the Apostolic Fathers. Socrates, the 
Church historian (c. 385-430 A. D.) says: " The 
Saviour and His apostles have enjoined us by no 
law to keep this feast. . . . The apostles had no 
thought of appointing festival days, but of promot- 
ing a life of blamelessness and piety. And it seems 
to me that the feast of Easter has been introduced 
into the Church from some old usage, just as many 
other customs have been established." 

The influence of Hebrew custom, as illustrated 
in the synagogue, appears in the free and simple 



Organization of the Early Church. 81 

forms of worship that characterized the apostolic 
church. There was reading from the sacred 
Scriptures of the Old Testament, followed by 
exegetical and practical addresses from any who 
were moved by the Spirit to speak. In later 
times a letter from one of the apostles was also 
read, and, still later, portions from one of the 
gospels. After the final settlement of the New 
Testament canon, the custom became fixed of 
reading in worship selections from both the Old 
and New Testaments, a custom which has survived 
until the present day. 

There were prayers, which soon followed pre- 
scribed forms, repetitions of the Lord's Prayer 
and the singing of psalms. In addition to psalms, 
Christian hymns began to appear in worship as 
early, probably, as the time of St. Paul. It is 
thought that fragments of some of these Christian 
hymns are found in his epistles ; as, for example : 

Awake thou that sleepest, 

And rise from the dead, 

And Christ shall give thee light. 

Eph. v. 14. 



Justified in the spirit, 
Seen of angels, 
Preached among the nations, 
Believed on in the world, 
Received up in glory. 

1 Tim. hi. 16. 



82 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

He that would love life, 

And see good days, 

Let him refrain his tongue from evil, 

And his lips that they speak no guile, etc. 

i Peter hi. io, 12. 

This last is adapted with a slight modification 
from the 34th Psalm. 

Before the end of the second century there was 
an interesting development of Christian hymnology. 
The Evening Hymn of the Greek Church, <£<»? 
l\apbv ay Las 6o'|t7?, is attributed to Athenogenes, 
who was martyred about 175 A. D. It is familiar 
to English readers through the metrical trans- 
lations, or paraphrases, by Keble, Eddis, and Dr. 
Bethune. I give a literal translation : — 

" Glad Light of the holy glory, 

Of the Immortal Heavenly Father, 

Holy, Blessed Jesus Christ, 

Coming to the setting sun, 

Beholding the evening light, 

We hymn Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God. 

Worthy art Thou, in all seasons, to be hymned with pious 

voices, 
O Son of God, who givest life ; 
Wherefore the world glorifies Thee." 

About the end of the second century Barde- 
sanes and his son, Harmonius, wrote many hymns 
which were very popular in the Syrian churches. 
Among the most notable of the early Christian 
hymns is the Gloria in Excclsis. The following 



Organization of the Early Church. 83 

hymn is attributed to Clement of Alexandria. I 
quote from the literal translation, a part of which 
may be found in the first volume of Dr. Sheldon's 
" History of the Christian Church." As Dr. Shel- 
don says, " it is little else than a chain of epithets 
descriptive of the offices of Christ." 

" Bridle of untamed colts, 
Wing of unwandering birds, 
Sure helm of babes, 
Shepherd of royal lambs ! 
Assemble thy simple children 
To praise holily, 
To hymn guilelessly 
With innocent mouths 
Christ the guide of children, 

O King of saints, 
All-subduing Word 
Of the most high Father, 
Prince of wisdom, 
Support of sorrows, 
That rejoicest in the ages, 
Jesus, Saviour 
Of the human race, 
Shepherd, Husbandman, 
Helm, bridle, 
Heavenly Wing, 
Of the all-holy flock, 
Fisher of men 
Who are saved, 
Catching the chaste fishes 
With sweet life 
From the hateful wave 
Of a sea of vices, — 



84 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

Guide [us] Shepherd, of rational sheep ; 
Guide unharmed children, 
O holy King," etc 1 

In the early assemblies for worship great 
freedom of address was allowed. Whoever had a 
charismatic endowment might speak. All Chris- 
tians participated in the worship until after the 
middle of the second century ; then worship began 
to be looked upon, not only as a service to God 
which was obligatory, but even as having a merit 
of its own; then the worship was gradually appro- 
priated by the clergy, and finally the distinction 
between " the active and the passive members of 
the congregation" became complete. 

In the beginning the Hebrew Christians con- 
tinued to keep the Jewish Sabbath, but the first 
day of the week also was observed in commem- 
oration of the resurrection of Christ, — not, how- 
ever, like the Jewish Sabbath, by cessation from 
manual labor. The Lord's day, as almost from the 
beginning it was called, was observed by meetings 
for joyful worship, in which the attitude of prayer 
usually was standing, and for the celebration of the 
Eucharist. The distinction ot days was natural to 
the Jewish Christians, and under Jewish influence it 
tended to appear in Gentile churches, especially in 
Asia Minor. This tendency St. Paul resisted. In 

1 The whole of the literal translation of which the above is but 
the first half, and also a very good metrical version, may be found 
in Volume IV. of the " Ante-Nicene Christian Library." 



Organization of the Early Church. 85 

accordance with the genius of the Christian faith, 
he maintained that all days were sacred, and threw 
the whole weight of his influence against the 
tendency to Judaize Christianity. For a time his 
influence prevailed, but the tendency was too 
strong, and, although most of the Jewish rites 
passed away, the tendency survived ; and during 
a large part of its history the Christian Church has 
exhibited the Judaistic spirit of devotion to sacred 
days and seasons and ceremonies. 

As the churches in Palestine declined, or 
largely lost their distinctively Jewish character 
by the incoming of Gentiles after the destruction 
of Jerusalem, the observance of the Sabbath 
gradually disappeared. The Lord's day did 
not, however, immediately take its place, save 
in the single sense that it became a day for 
Christian worship. Not until about the year 200 
do we meet with recommendations to Christians to 
abstain wholly from secular labor on Sunday. 
Abstinence from secular labor on that day was not 
made compulsory by the church until as late as 
the Council of Laodicea in 363 A. D. ; though as 
early as 321 Constantine legally recognized the 
exceptional character of the day " by forbidding 
the courts of justice to hold their sessions on that 
day, except for the humane purpose of manumit- 
ting slaves. He also commanded his soldiers to 
refrain from their customary military exercises." 

Dr. Fisher, from whom I quote, adds that " the 



86 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

public games, however, still continued to attract 
many from the proper observance of Sunday and 
of the Church festivals. But in 425 a law was 
passed forbidding all games on such days." 

The ascetical tendency, which appeared very 
early in the church, developed rapidly in the 
second century; it shows itself in the emphasis 
that was laid on fasting and the custom of observ- 
ing Wednesdays and Fridays until 3 o'clock in the 
afternoon as fast days, and also in the growing dis 
position to attach special value to virginity and 
celibacy. The observance of Wednesday as a fast 
day ceased after a time, but Friday continued to 
be kept, in memory of Christ's passion. The 
"Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" says: " Let 
not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast 
on the second and fifth days of the week ; but ye 
shall fast on the fourth and the preparation day," 
— that is, Wednesday and Friday. 

The tendency of the Church toward sacra- 
mentalism began to appear in connection with the 
two ordinances, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
At first baptism was symbolically a confession of 
faith in Christ and a pledge of obedience to Him: 
associated with this was, of course, the idea of 
cleansing from sin. Its form, immersion, vividly 
suggested a burial and resurrection; therefore, 
from the beginning almost, it carried with it the 
idea of a birth. Even in apostolic times the act 
of baptism seems to have been intimately asso- 



Organization of the Early Church. 87 

ciated with the idea of regeneration. In the ear- 
liest writings after the New Testament, we find 
expressions indicating that it was believed to have a 
mystical efficacy. The term " Baptism," was some- 
times used as the equivalent of regeneration and con- 
version. In the " Teaching of the Twelve " there is 
no clear intimation of this idea, but the idea is fairly 
ascribed to Ignatius, and it is found quite explicitly 
in the writings of Justin Martyr. The latter says 
concerning converts: " They are brought by us 
where there is water, and are regenerated in the 
same manner in which we were ourselves regener- 
ated." Speaking of the Eucharist, he uses the 
following language : " Of which no one is allowed 
to partake but the man who believes that the things 
which we teach are true, and who has been washed 
with the washing that is for the remission of sins, 
and unto regeneration, and who is so living as 
Christ has enjoined." In another place, discours- 
ing of righteousness, Justin says : " We have be- 
lieved, and testify that that very baptism which he 
(Isaiah) announced is alone able to purify those 
who have repented ; and this is the water of life." 
Tertullia-n, although he was inclined to postpone 
baptism on account of the supposed deadliness of 
sins committed after receiving that ordinance, thus 
writes : " Happy is the sacrament of our water, in 
that, by washing away the sins of our early blind- 
ness, we are set free [and admitted] into eternal life ! 
. . . We, little fishes, after the example of our 



88 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

IX©T2, Jesus Christ, are born in water, nor have 
we safety in any other way than by permanently 
abiding in water. And so that most monstrous 
creature, who had no right to teach even sound 
doctrine, knew full well how to kill the little fishes, 
by taking them away from the water ! " Tertullian 
here alludes to some one whom he stigmatizes as 
the " viper of the Cainite heresy." In another 
place Tertullian argues vigorously against doubts 
that baptism is necessary to salvation. Cyprian 
expresses his conviction of the necessity of baptism 
even more strongly than Tertullian. He says : 
" In order that, according to the divine arrange- 
ment and the evangelical truth, they may be able 
to obtain remission of sins, and to be sanctified, 
and to become temples of God, they must all 
absolutely be baptized with the baptism of the 
Church who come from adversaries and antichrists 
to the Church of Christ." He also explicitly 
makes baptism the means of regeneration. " One 
is not born by the imposition of hands when he 
receives the Holy Spirit, but in baptism, that so, 
being already born, he may receive the Holy 
Spirit" 

About the middle of the third century, there- 
fore, the sacramental doctrine of baptism, though 
it was not fully formulated until the time of Augus- 
tine, had become so far fixed that the rite was 
conceived as necessary to salvation. In primitive 
times believers were baptized immediately upon 



Organization of the Early Church. 89 

their confession of faith in Christ. The baptism 
was an immersion which quite early became three- 
fold. "The Teaching of the Twelve" is the first 
Christian document that seems to recognize any 
other form. It says: "If thou hast not living 
water, baptize into other water; and if thou canst 
not in cold, then in warm. But if thou hast nei- 
ther, pour water thrice upon the head into the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost." This writing certainly is as early 
as the first decade of the second century, and 
probably it belongs to the last years of the first 
century. 

After a time, as a cautionary measure, baptism 
was delayed, and the Catechumenate was formed. 
As early as the persecution under Pliny, in Asia 
Minor, the Lord's Supper, which till that time had 
been celebrated in the evening in connection with 
the " love-feast," was joined to the preaching ser- 
vice, and the love-feast was abandoned, in order to 
avoid the appearance of violating the law against 
secret meetings. The danger to which the church 
was exposed afterwards caused the exclusion of 
all heathens from the preaching service. Care was 
necessary, also, in receiving professed converts lest 
those should gain admittance to the church who 
were spies and enemies. Some means, therefore, 
was required by which those who avowed them- 
selves believers, or, at least, desirous of becoming 
Christians, could safely be brought into full mem- 



90 From Jerusalem to Niccea.' 

bership in the Church. The means devised was 
the Catechumenate. 

Catechumens were those who, having expressed 
the wish to become Christians, were put under 
instruction, and were therefore naturally in prepa- 
ration for baptism. Of these there were four 
classes: (i) inquirers, — those who were suffi- 
ciently interested to receive private instruction ; 
(2) hearers, — those who were allowed to attend 
public preaching and to hear the reading of the 
gospel ; (3) genuflect entes, — those who had al- 
ready asked for baptism, and were allowed to par- 
ticipate in the prayers of the congregation ; (4) the 
electi or competetentes, — those who, having passed 
the period of probation, were ready to receive 
baptism. 

In the larger churches, quite early, there seem 
to have been catechists appointed for the special 
instruction of catechumens. In Alexandria and 
Carthage catechetical schools were founded, but 
they were not general, and, strange to say, there 
is no evidence of any such institution in Rome. 
The catechetical school in Alexandria rose to a 
position of great influence through the teaching 
of its celebrated masters, Clement and Origen. 

In early days baptism was administered at any 
time, but late in the period which we are studying 
the custom became general of administering it 
only on one of the great days of the Church, and 
it was finally confined to the season of Easter and 



Organization of the Early Church. 91 

Pentecost. The growth of the sacramental concep- 
tion of baptism undoubtedly led to the early adop- 
tion of infant baptism ; of infant baptism, however, 
there is no absolutely certain record before the 
time of Cyprian. 

Dr. ScharT, I believe, held a different view, but I 
have been unable to find any evidence invalidating 
this statement. The reference in Irenseus is uncer- 
tain, and Tertullian opposed infant baptism, which 
would seem to indicate that it was introduced as a 
novelty in his time. A different inference, how- 
ever, is tenable. In an epistle to Fidus, giving the 
judgment of a council of sixty-six bishops in oppo- 
sition to the opinion that baptism, like circum- 
cision, should be delayed until the eighth day after 
birth, Cyprian says : '• This was our opinion in 
council, that by us no one ought to be hindered 
from baptism and from the grace of God, who is 
merciful and kind and loving to all. Which, since 
it is to be observed and maintained in respect of 
all, we think it to be even more observed in 
respect of infants and newly born persons, who on 
this very account deserve more from our help and 
from the divine mercy, that immediately, on the 
very beginning of their birth, lamenting and weep- 
ing, they do nothing else but entreat." 

The Lord's Supper was originally observed in 
private houses or in hired rooms. A group of 
believers, or a believing household, participated in 
a joyful evening meal, called ayaTrr), or love-feast; 



92 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

after which, the one who presided handed round 
the bread and wine as Jesus had done. This cus- 
tom seems to have continued through the apostolic 
period. Later, as we have seen, the Supper was 
attached to public worship, and near the end of 
the second century non-communicants were dis- 
missed before the celebration of the Eucharist. 
This was due in part, doubtless, to the danger of 
persecution, which led to privacy, but it was due 
also to changed ideas of the Supper and the conse- 
quent dread of profanation. Perhaps too the exam- 
ple of the heathen mysteries had some influence. 
The bread and wine were contributed by the com- 
municants and distributed by the deacons. Very 
early the conception of the Eucharist as an offer- 
ing arose. The elements, being the gifts of the 
flock, were looked upon as their offering to God, 
but they were not in any sense considered an offer- 
ing of the body and blood of Christ. 

The common practice was for the communion 
to be observed on every Sunday. It also attended 
every event of exceptional importance, as, for 
example, the anniversary of the death of a loved 
one. The day of a martyr's death was counted 
his birthday, and was celebrated at his burial-place 
by prayers and other acts of worship, and by par- 
ticipating in the Communion. On these occasions 
prayers for the dead were offered, probably before 
the end of the second century. 

From the time of Ignatius, some of the Fathers, 



Organization of the Early Church. 93 

among them Justin Martyr and Irenseus, ascribed 
to the Lord's Supper an efficacious influence on 
the body and spirit of the recipient. Justin Martyr 
says: " For not as common bread and common 
drink do we receive these; but in like manner as 
Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh 
by the word of God, had both flesh and blood for 
our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that 
the food which is blessed by the prayer of His 
word, and from which our blood and flesh by 
transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood 
of that Jesus who. was made flesh." 

Christ was believed to enter into mysterious 
union with the bread and wine, though these ele- 
ments did not lose their native properties. It was 
not a doctrine of transubstantiation, which the 
Fathers held, and which is familiar to later the- 
ology; this doctrine was first advocated by Rad- 
bertus in 831 A. d., and not until 12 15 was it given 
ecclesiastical sanction by Pope Innocent III. 

The idea of the Lord's Supper as the repetition 
of the veritable expiatory sacrifice of Christ is 
suggested by Tertullian in the words : " When the 
Lord's Body has been received and reserved (ap- 
parently for eating at home), each point is secured, 
both the participation of the sacrifice and the 
discharge of duty." 

A little later than Tertullian, Cyprian speaks of 
the sacrament in such a way as to show that he 
conceives it as a repetition by Christian priests of 



94 From yerusalem to Niccea. 

the offering and sacrifice of Christ on the cross ; 
but this view was not general, nor was it insisted 
upon by Cyprian. 

The view of Cyprian was confined to the West- 
ern churches. " In the East," says Harnack, " we 
possess no proof that before the time of Eusebius 
there is any idea of the offering of the body of 
Christ in the Lord's Supper." 

We have now considered the development of 
the Church as an organization from the days of 
the apostles to the end of the third century. We 
have seen that this organization was in large part 
determined by the state of society and the spirit 
of the age. It was the product of tendencies 
inherent in those who composed the membership 
of the Church and of the influences which were 
exerted upon them by their environment. The 
analogy between the Church and the political or- 
ganization of the Roman empire is undoubtedly 
real and close; "but it would be a mistake," says 
Ramsay, " to attribute it to conscious imitation, or 
even to seek in Roman institutions the origin of 
church institutions that resemble them." 

In our study we have observed the change from 
the free and fluent life of the primitive Christian 
societies to the more or less artificial and con- 
strained life of the highly elaborated ecclesi- 
asticism which is exhibited to us under the 
administration of Cyprian, — the change from 
pure Congregationalism to the episcopacy which 



Organization of the Early Church. 95 

in the persons and rule of some of the great bish- 
ops already adumbrated the hierarchy of Hilde- 
brand. We have observed the transition from the 
simple faith in Christ, which characterized the first 
disciples, to the beginnings, at least, of the detailed 
and dogmatic creeds which were rapidly wrought 
out in the fourth century. We have seen baptism 
transformed from a symbolical acknowledgment 
of discipleship to Christ into a mystical and saving 
sacrament ; and the Lord's Supper, from a joyful 
memorial of the recently departed Lord into a 
re-enactment of the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ. 
We have seen the Lord's day transformed from 
the natural occasion for a glad and spontaneous 
remembrance of Christ's resurrection into a Chris- 
tian Sabbath, that was beginning to take on the 
religious character of its Jewish prototype. This 
process of change and development was, in impor- 
tant particulars, a retrogression rather than an 
advance; and in all subsequent centuries there 
have not been wanting protests, like Montanism in 
the second century, and the Reformation in the 
sixteenth, and the powerful movement toward ec- 
clesiastical and theological liberty of our own day. 
Yet there was a real advance, which the fascina- 
tion of the primitive church-life, with its sim- 
plicity and spontaneity and enthusiasm must not 
be allowed to obscure. As we study the Church 
of the first three centuries, certain things grow 
clear: First, that Christianity came into the world, 



g6 From ^Jerusalem to Niccea. 

not as an institution, but as a life, with force to 
create any and every institution for its needs. That 
fact enables us to discriminate between the eccle- 
siastical form which, at any time, particular influ- 
ences or particular exigencies have shaped, and 
the truth and spirit which underlie all forms. It 
also enables us to appreciate the pure democracy 
of Congregationalism, the representative democ- 
racy of Presbyterianism, and the oligarchical 
ecclesiasticism of Episcopacy. All types exist 
germinally in the apostolic Church, and each type 
has its justification in the mission and needs, as 
well as its illustration in the history of the Church. 
No one of them can maintain itself to the absolute 
exclusion of the others. 

It grows clear: Second, that in the broad, ele- 
mental Christian idea, there is room in the one 
Catholic Church for all varieties, both of needed 
or useful organization and of sincere thought and 
worship. Christianity is more than its instruments, 
and larger than even its symbols. It is hospitable 
to whatever is real and good in the ideas and 
endeavors of men. The Church, in its true mani- 
foldness, is inclusive and not exclusive. There is 
place in it for the intense devotion of Ignatius, 
the stern asceticism of Tatian, the catholic intel- 
lectuality of the Alexandrine Clemens, the mystical 
Puritanism of Montanus, the theological boldness 
and massiveness of Origen, and the imperious 
ecclesiasticism of Cyprian. There is room for the 



Organization of the Early Church. 97 

individualist and the socialist, the Churchman and 
the Quaker, the Trinitarian and the Unitarian, the 
saint and the sceptic, — yes, and even the rever- 
ent agnostic. The unity of life, of spiritual aspira- 
tion and endeavor, of pure desire and holy love, is 
deeper and stronger than any uniformity, and 
wider in its scope than all diversities of creed or 
organization. Each sect or party that has arisen 
in the Church has emphasized some important 
phase of truth, has met some need of human life, 
and has made some contribution to the spiritual 
and social progress of the race. And back of all 
is the universal Christ, the creator of no specific 
institution, but the inspirer of all enterprises that 
-have worked for the emancipation and enlighten- 
ment of man. 

It may justly be said that the state of the primi- 
tive Church was not an ideal state. It certainly is 
true that the state of the Church in the times of 
Gregory VII. and Leo X. was still less an ideal 
state. But in the first three centuries the careful 
student of history will find the germs and begin- 
nings of whatever form or doctrine or ecclesias- 
tical order has proved itself to be good and 
promotive of man's religious and moral well- 
being; and he will find the prophetic intimations 
of the future Catholic Church in which the spirit 
of Christ v/ill fitly and fully manifest itself for the 
salvation both of the individual soul and of the 
world. What the form of that coming Church 



98 ' From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

will be, the modest student will hesitate to affirm ; 
but he will still confidently believe that without 
the abandonment of organic life, or the loss of 
anything valuable which it has won through the 
centuries of its history, that Church will illustrate 
the fullest development of the individual liberty 
and spontaneity of the first Christian years, com- 
bined with the comprehensiveness and efficiency 
of the most perfect organization which the wisdom 
of all the centuries of experience can produce. 



THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 

THE term " Apostolic Fathers " properly desig- 
nates only men in the primitive Church who 
had personal contact with one or more of the 
apostles, and have left some written record of the 
Christian thought and life of their time. Of such 
men there have survived in history the names of 
but five or six. It is not strange that there should 
be so few, for the earliest growth of Christianity 
was not among people who had the training or 
capacity to make any literary contribution to the 
expression or defence of the Christian faith. After 
the middle of the second century there is no lack 
of great names. The second, third, fourth and 
fifth centuries were distinguished by the labors of 
powerful apologists, profound theologians, and 
able administrators. 

It is well for us to be reminded, again and again, 
that Christianity began without schools, without 
learning and culture, and without any of the ad- 
vantages of wealth and rank. Among the original 
apostles there were only three or four who were in 
any sense men of mark, at least in point of in- 
tellect. Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James 



ioo From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

and John, have an eminent place in the events re- 
corded in the Book of Acts. Matthew survives 
in the memory of men solely because of the con- 
nection of his name with the first Gospel. St. Paul, 
not one of the twelve, was a man of colossal genius. 
The impression of his powerful personality and his 
thought has been felt by the Christian Church 
through all its history more profoundly than that 
of any other save Jesus Himself. 

From the time of St. Paul's death until near the 
middle of the second century the student works in 
an obscure time. The history of the Church dur- 
ing those years runs underground. " We read it," 
says Plummer, "as we read the geological history 
of this planet, rather in its effects than in its 
operations." 

One cannot help being impressed by the illus- 
tration which the early Church furnishes of the 
independence of the Christian faith of those means 
which are usually necessary to success in any pro- 
paganda. After Paul passed away the only great 
survivor was the apostle John, and his labors were 
confined mainly to Asia Minor and the vicinity of 
Ephesus. It might truly be said of those days 
that " not many wise men after the flesh, not many 
mighty, not many noble" were called, and surely 
the strong things of the world were overcome by 
the weak. He who believes in the Christian faith 
as the result of a divine communication and im- 
pulse, will have no difficulty in accounting for the 



The Apostolic Fathers. 101 

spread and ultimate triumph of that faith; but he 
who depends for the solution of the problem only 
upon what are called " natural causes," has upon 
his hands a problem most difficult of solution. 

During that " underground " period there were 
undoubtedly many devoted and energetic and even 
capable followers of Christ; but there were only a 
very few who have left any traces of themselves in 
Christian literature. The material for our study 
consists mainly of a few somewhat heterogeneous 
literary remains and considerable uncertain tra- 
dition. By a careful and patient study of these, 
scholars have arrived at a tolerably clear, though 
very limited, knowledge of the growth and ten- 
dencies of the Church during the first hundred 
years after its beginning; but in the traditions of 
that early time there is undoubtedly very much 
fiction. As Harnack has pithily said, " Hier gabe 
es reichen Stoff um ohne Geschichte Geschichte 
zu machen." 

Fortunately there have been recent and valuable 
additions to our knowledge of the sub-apostolic 
period. The most notable of these additions is 
the " Didache," or the " Teaching of the Twelve 
Apostles," a copy of which was discovered and 
given to the world a few years ago. 

Our present study of the Apostolic Fathers will 
include sketches. of Clement of Rome, Barnabas, 
Hermas, Papias, Ignatius, and Polycarp, and some 
account of their literary remains. Of these names 



102 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

only the first and the last two represent personali- 
ties that have any distinctness as historical figures. 
Assuming that Barnabas and Hermas are names of 
real persons, we may claim the slight acquaintance 
that is afforded by their writings. Both wrote 
Greek, and there survives from one of them a 
letter known as the " Epistle of Barnabas," and 
from the other an allegorical romance known as 
the " Shepherd of Hermas." Our study will also 
include some account of the " Didache," and some 
other writings which tradition has erroneously 
attributed to Clement of Rome. 

Clement of Rome. 

Clement of Rome is thought, on account of his 
name, to have been a pagan. His great familiar- 
ity with the Old Testament, showing a long ac- 
quaintance with it, would indicate that he was a 
Hellenistic Jew; but we have no means of deter- 
mining this question, nor is it specially important. 
He was a resident of Rome and a prominent 
member of the Roman church during the latter 
part of the first century. Some writers have 
identified him with the Clement mentioned by St. 
Paul in his epistle to the Philippians. While 
this is not impossible, it is on the whole improb- 
able. Others deny that he was the Clement 
mentioned in Philippians, but grant that he was a 
companion or acquaintance of St. Paul and St. 
Peter in Rome. Irenaeus speaks of him as being 



The Apostolic Fathers. 103 

acquainted with the apostles, and there is a tra- 
dition that he was converted to the Christian faith 
by St. Paul. Lightfoot says that " the tradition 
that he was a disciple of one or both of these 
apostles is early, constant, and definite ; and it is 
borne out by the character and contents of his 
genuine epistle." 

There is some evidence that he was a bishop, or 
presbyter, of the Roman church in the last decade 
of the first century, probably in conjunction with 
Linus and Anencletus. Eusebius gives the date 
of his official service as from 93 to 101 A. D. His 
name, in company with the names of Linus and 
Cletus, appears in the liturgy of the Roman 
church as early as the second century. With 
some plausibility Clement has been identified 
with Flavius Clemens, a relative of the emperor 
Domitian, who was put to death by the emperor 
on the charge of atheism near the end of his reign, 
and whose wife, Domitilla, also a relative of the 
emperor, was banished. There is no doubt that 
the charge designates Flavius Clemens as a Chris- 
tian, and that he was one of the victims of the 
persecution which marked the close of Domitian's 
reign. There are, however, very great difficulties 
in the way of accepting this identification of our 
Clement with the martyr-consul. Nothing what- 
ever is known of the time or manner of his death, 
though there are late and untrustworthy traditions 
that he died a martyr. 



104 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

Considerable literature is attached to the name 
of Clement. The only genuine writing of his that 
has survived is an epistle to the church in Corinth. 
This letter, which is purely irenical, is not written 
in the name of Clement, but in the name of the 
church in Rome. Its single aim was to restore 
harmony in a church that, as we know from the 
epistles of St. Paul, was early distinguished by the 
spirit of dissension. It seems that the church, or a 
part of it, had revolted against some of its presbyters 
and had turned them out of office. The letter is 
not that of a brilliant or strong mind, but rather that 
of a gentle nature, characterized by simple faith and 
cheerful piety. Only once or twice in the whole 
letter does the style rise above the commonplace. 
I quote the best example: " How blessed and 
wonderful, beloved, are the gifts of God! Life in 
immortality, splendor in righteousness, truth in 
boldness, faith in assurance, self-control in holi- 
ness ! And all these fall under the cognizance of 
our understandings [now] ; what then shall those 
things be which are prepared for such as wait for 
Him? The Creator and Father of all worlds, the 
Most Holy, alone knows their amount and their 
beauty." 

The epistle abounds in- quotations from the 
Septuagint version of the Old Testament, in which, 
sometimes, are incorporated phrases that do not 
belong to the sacred text. It also contains many 
quotations from the New Testament. Of the 



The Apostolic Fathers. 105 

twenty-seven books of the latter, the author quotes 
from fourteen. These quotations are most abun- 
dant from Hebrews and First Corinthians. There 
are no quotations from the Fourth Gospel, nor from 
the epistles of St. Paul to the Galatians, Philippians, 
Colossians, and Thessalonians, and to Timothy and 
Philemon, nor from the epistles of St. John and St. 
Jude. The writer alludes to the martyrdom of St. 
Peter and St. Paul. Of the latter he says: " By 
reason of jealousy and strife, Paul, by his example, 
pointed out the prize of patient endurance. After 
that he had been seven times in bonds, had been 
driven into exile, had been stoned, had preached in 
the East and in the West, he won the noble renown 
which was the reward of his faith, having taught 
righteousness unto the whole world and having 
reached the farthest bounds of the West ; and when 
he had borne his testimony before the rulers, so he 
departed from the world and went unto the holy 
place, having been found a notable pattern of 
patient endurance." 

Many consider that there is in this passage a 
distinct intimation that St. Paul preached the 
gospel in Spain, and, possibly, even in Britain. 
The statement that the apostle was "seven times 
in bonds " is fully sustained by his own declaration 
in his second letter to the Corinthians that he had 
been " in prisons more abundantly " than the other 
apostles. 

The first part of Clement's letter is taken up 



106 From yerusalem to Niccea. 

with the citation of examples of Christian virtue 
in the saints, in various Old Testament characters, 
and in Christ, and with exhortations to humility 
and peaceableness. In the latter part the writer 
gently but plainly charges the Corinthians with 
their factiousness and disorder, and urges the 
opposing factions to mutual conciliation and the 
pursuit of peace. 

The letter incidentally throws light on the organi- 
zation of the early Church. It shows that the 
episcopate of half a century later was not yet 
enucleated in the Roman church. It uses the 
terms " presbyter " and " bishop " in the same 
sense, and recognizes only two offices, that of 
presbyter, or bishop, and that of deacon. It also 
reveals the democratic character of the Church in its 
reference to the appointment of presbyters " with 
the consent of the whole church." It thus exhorts 
the members of the church who were active in the 
contention : " Who therefore is noble among you ? 
Who is compassionate ? Who is fulfilled with 
love ? Let him say: If by reason of me there be 
faction and strife and divisions, I retire, I depart, 
whither ye will, and I do that which is ordered by the 
people ; only let the flock'of Christ be at peace with 
its duly appointed presbyters." 

In section fifty-five there is an interesting refer- 
ence to the fact that in times of persecution many 
Christians, urged by the zeal of love, achieved the 
most complete self-sacrifice on behalf of their 



The Apostolic Fathers. 107 

brethren. " We know," says Clement, " that many 
among ourselves have delivered themselves to 
bondage that they might ransom others. Many 
have sold themselves to slavery, and receiving the 
price paid for themselves, have fed others." 

As an indication of Clement's simplicity of mind, 
we observe that he takes the fabled Phoenix quite 
seriously, and uses it as an illustration of the Resur- 
rection. He also finds in the red cord which the 
spies used to mark Rahab's house in Jericho, a 
prophetic sign of the blood of Christ by which 
believers are redeemed from sin. The epistle is 
marked throughout by a purity of moral tone that 
separates it by an almost immeasurable degree 
from contemporary pagan writings. The latter half 
of section fifty-nine and the whole of sections sixty 
and sixty-one are taken up with a prayer, which is 
so carefully elaborated as to suggest that it is a 
prayer which Clement was in the habit of using in 
public worship ; perhaps it was a part of the 
nascent liturgy of the Roman Church. 

It is interesting to note that Clement's letter con- 
tains no allusion which gives support to the theory 
that the post-apostolic Church was divided between 
Pauline and anti-Pauline schools of thought. It 
was so highly valued by the early Christians that it 
was read in the churches on Sunday as if it were 
Scripture. Clement of Alexandria frequently 
quotes it as the work of the " Apostle Clemens." 

The following works have been ascribed by tra- 



108 From ^Jerusalem to Niccza. 

dition to Clement, but it is impossible that any of 
them save the first should have been his work, and 
the evidence against the authenticity of the first is 
practically conclusive. 

i. The Second Epistle of Clement to the 
CORINTHIANS. This writing is not a letter, but 
rather a homily, or sermon, which belongs some- 
where in the first half of the second century, quite 
certainly before 140 A. D., and there is no insuper- 
able objection to its being dated as early as 120. 
It is, therefore, probably the earliest extant Chris- 
tian sermon outside of the New Testament. The 
writer is unknown. His work is characterized by 
a lofty moral tone and strong faith, but by no 
striking merits of thought or style. It alludes to 
presbyters, but to no other officers of the Church. 
The opening sentence pretty clearly indicates the 
early Christian belief in the divinity of Christ. It 
is as follows : " Brethren, we ought so to think of 
Jesus Christ as of God, as of the Judge of quick 
and dead." The author reports sayings of Jesus 
which are not found in the New Testament; for 
example, there is the following conversation be- 
tween the Lord and Peter : " For the Lord s'aith, 
' Ye shall be as lambs in the midst of wolves.' But 
Peter answered and said unto Him, ' What then, if 
the wolves should tear the lambs ? ' Jesus said 
unto Peter, J Let not the lambs fear the wolves after 
they are dead ; and ye also, fear ye not them that 



The Apostolic Fathers. 109 

kill you and are not able to do anything to you ; 
but fear Him that after ye are dead hath power 
over soul and body, to cast them into the gehenna 
of fire ! " In another place, speaking of the com- 
ing of the kingdom of God, he says : " Let us there- 
fore await the kingdom of God betimes in love and 
righteousness, since we know not the day of God's 
appearing. For the Lord Himself, being asked by 
a certain person when His kingdom would come, 
said, ' When the two shall be one, and the outside as 
the inside, and the male with the female, neither male 
nor female.' " To this passage, which is quoted 
from the Apocryphal Gospel of the Egyptians, 
he gives an ingenious explanation. The same pas- 
sage is quoted by Clement of Alexandria in his 
" Stromateis." 

The idea of baptism as a seal which must be 
kept pure and undefiled finds place in this homily. 
There is an allusion to the Resurrection which in- 
dicates that the writer believed in the actual 
resuscitation of the body: "We ought therefore 
to guard the flesh as a temple of God : for in like 
manner as ye are called in the flesh, ye shall come 
also in the flesh." 

2. Two Epistles on Virginity. These were 
discovered in 1750 by Wetstein, and are known only 
in the Syriac tongue. It is evident, however, that 
they have been translated from the Greek, for they 
contain Grecisms, and there is a fragment of what 



1 1 o From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

is evidently another Syriac version. These epistles 
cannot possibly be the work of Clement; they 
belong to a much later time, though their authen- 
ticity was strenuously argued by Wetstein, and even 
Neander was inclined to admit their authenticity. 
The author quotes from the Fourth Gospel, and 
also from the Apocrypha, and gives evidence of a 
long familiarity with the writings of the New 
Testament, like that which Clement shows with 
the writings of the Old. The teaching of these 
epistles is strongly ascetical. Some critics put them 
as early as 150 A. D., but, as there is no notice of 
them in Eusebius, it is probable, both that they 
were not widely known in the early Church, and 
that they were written later than the middle of the 
second century. 

3. The Clementines. The study of The 
Clementines properly belongs under the head of 
the heresies of the Church, but since they have 
been ascribed to Clement of Rome I shall give 
some account of them here. 

This remarkable work, or cluster of works, con- 
sists of (1) " The Homilies " and (2) " The Recog- 
nitions." There is also a third form known as " The 
Epitome," which is a late abridgment of " The 
Homilies" with some additions, especially the con- 
tinuation of the story, and an account of the martyr- 
dom of Clement. There seem to have been several 
forms of " The Epitome," but it does not differ so 



The Apostolic Fathers. 1 1 1 

essentially from the " Homilies " and the " Recog- 
nitions " as to require separate treatment. Both the 
" Homilies " and the " Recognitions " were written 
in Greek, but of the latter the Greek has been lost, 
and we possess it only in the form of a Latin 
translation by Rufinus. 

Nothing conclusive is known concerning the 
author of the " Clementines." Some have believed 
that it is the genuine work of Clement; others 
have ascribed it to some of Clement's hearers and 
companions ; and still others have attributed it to 
Bardesanes, or Bardaisan, a Syrian theologian and 
Gnostic, who was born at Edessa in 154 A. D. The 
book was written, probably, in Oriental Syria, and 
belongs to the end of the second century or the be- 
ginning of the third, but contains matter of an earlier 
date. The work is fiction charged with Ebionitic 
doctrine of the Elchasaite type. It assumes to repre- 
sent the condition of the Church between the Ascen- 
sion and the beginning of the labors of St. Paul. 
Peter is the hero and Simon Magus is the villain. 
I will sketch briefly the story as it appears in the 
" Recognitions." 

The " Recognitions " is composed of ten books 
and is in the form of an autobiography addressed 
by Clement to James, bishop of Jerusalem. It falls 
naturally into three parts: (1) Books I— III. ; (2) 
IV-VI. ; (3) VII-X. ; which Dr. Salmon suggests 
are probably of different dates. The first part be- 
gins with Clement's early history. It tells us that 



112 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

he was born in Rome, and from the earliest age was 
a lover of chastity. His mind, naturally inclined to 
speculation, was beset by, grave doubts and per- 
plexities as to the origin and destiny of things and 
the immortality of the soul. The account of the 
great distress which he suffered, and from which he 
found no alleviation in the schools of the philoso- 
phers, is pathetic and even eloquent. Clement de- 
termines to test the question of the immortality of 
the soul by going to Egypt and instituting an in- 
quiry of the Egyptian hierophants and magicians. 
He is restrained however from executing his pur- 
pose. Then he hears of the remarkable teachings 
and miraculous deeds of Christ. There is here, 
evidently, an anachronism, for, in what Clement 
reports of Christ it would seem as if Christ were 
still alive, whereas the entire action of the story is 
confined to the few years immediately after the 
Ascension. While Clement is brooding upon 
what he hears of Christ, Barnabas comes to Rome 
and preaches the gospel. He is opposed and de- 
rided by the multitude, but Clement takes his part 
against the scoffers, and carries him off to his 
house. Barnabas soon departs for Judea, in order 
to be present at a Jewish feast, but he has so im- 
pressed Clement that the latter resolves to follow 
him. After a little time Clement goes to Caesarea, 
where he meets Peter, and finds that the apostle is 
to have, on the following day, a public discussion 
with one Simon, a Samaritan. Clement is cordially 



The Apostolic Fathers. 113 

received by Peter, to whom he gives an account of 
himself. Peter instructs him, showing the causes 
of ignorance of the truth, speaks to him of the true 
Prophet, by which name he designates Christ, and 
invites Clement to be his attendant. Clement 
profits much by Peter's instruction and expresses 
his appreciation and gratitude to the great satis- 
faction of the apostle. 

The proposed discussion does not come off 
immediately, for Simon desires to postpone it for 
seven days. Peter consents to .the postponement, 
telling Clement that it will be advantageous be- 
cause in the mean time he can more fully explain 
to him the true doctrine. Peter continues his 
instruction, covering the history and teachings of 
the Hebrew Scriptures, and detailing, from his 
point of view, the events which had occurred from 
the coming of Christ down to the time when 
Simon challenges him to debate, including in his 
discourse a notice of the persecution of the 
disciples by Saul. When the day comes for the 
discussion with Simon, Peter rouses his attendants 
early in the morning and discourses to them, at 
length, upon Simon Magus, setting forth his 
history, his formidable powers and his extreme 
wickedness. At the appointed hour the dispu- 
tation begins ; it covers a wide field of discussion 
and continues through several days. Simon is 
finally overcome with dismay by Peter's evident 
knowledge of the secret source of his power. 



H4 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

This is betrayed in the following manner: Simon 
asks to hear in a single sentence how the soul is im- 
mortal. Peter replies, " If you do not know, go now 
to your house, and entering the inner bed-chamber 
you will see an image placed, containing the figure 
of a murdered boy clothed in purple; ask him, 
and he will inform you either by hearing or seeing. 
For what need is there to hear from him if the soul 
is immortal, when you see it standing before you? " 
Peter proposes to go at once to Simon's house. 
Simon, hearing this, is stricken in conscience, and 
turns pale with fright. He beseeches Peter to re- 
ceive him to repentance, but, a little later, finding 
that Peter had learned of his secret from some per- 
sons who had been his associates, he is filled with 
rage, and turns fiercely on Peter, and denounces 
him as " most wicked and deceitful ; " at the same 
time he boasts of his divine nature and power: — 

" I am the first power, who am always, and without be- 
ginning. But having entered the womb of Rachel, I was 
born of her as a man, that I might be visible to men. I 
have flown through the air ; I have been mixed with fire, 
and been made one body with it ; I have made statues to 
move ; I have animated lifeless things ; I have made 
stones bread \ I have flown from mountain to mountain ; 
I have moved from place to place, upheld by angels' 
hands, and have lighted on the earth. Not only 
have I done these things, but even now I am able to do 
them, that by facts I may prove to all that I am the Son 
of God, enduring to eternity, and that I can make those 



The Apostolic Fathers. 1 1 5 

who believe on me endure in like manner forever. But 
your words are all vain ; nor can you perform any real 
works, since he also who sent you is a magician, who 
yet could not deliver himself from the suffering of the 
Cross." 

After seeking in vain to stir up a riot, Simon is 
driven out with a single follower, and Peter dis- 
courses for a little time on Simon's lamentable 
delusion, and then dismisses the people with a 
benediction. 

During the following night the apostle engages 
in a long conversation with his companions, in 
which one Niceta takes part as interlocutor. Later, 
a deserter from Simon reports that the magician 
has gone to Rome, and Peter resolves to follow 
him. He first appoints Zaccheus bishop of Caesa- 
rea, and ordains presbyters and deacons. He then 
sends twelve disciples before him, and, after baptiz- 
ing more than ten thousand believers, hearing that 
Simon had gone to Tripolis, he departs for the 
latter city. Here ends the first part. 

The second part continues the narrative. On 
arriving at Tripolis, Peter finds that Simon has 
departed on the way to Syria. The apostle is met 
by crowds of people in Tripolis, among whom he 
performs miracles of healing on many demoniacs 
and other sick, and to whom he preaches on de- 
mons and idolatry and false prophets. Clement, 
being not yet baptized, is not permitted to join with 
the disciples even in prayer. Peter continued dis- 



1 1 6 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

coursing unweariedly throughout the two following 
days, and on the third sent certain of his disciples 
on to Antioch. He, however, remained three 
months in Tripolis, where he baptized many be- 
lievers, appointed a bishop, ordained presbyters 
and deacons, and arranged the service of the 
church. Clement remained with him, and at this 
time, apparently, received baptism. 

The third part, consisting of the remaining books, 
the seventh to the tenth, contains the long and 
highly romantic story of Clement's family, in the 
course of which Peter brings together long separated 
relatives, and converts them all to the gospel, and, 
finally, not without the use of pious fraud, accom- 
plishes the complete discomfiture of Simon. Such 
very briefly is the story of the " Recognitions." 

The " Homilies " is the same story with variations. 
Both the " Homilies " and the " Recognitions " seem 
to be modifications of a previously existing story. It 
is probable that the " Homilies" is, in the main, the 
earlier of the two. In it the Ebionitic and Gnostic 
elements appear in about equal proportions. "The 
'Homilies,' says Dr. Donaldson, "contain all the 
characteristics of Ebionism in much the harsher 
form." The idea of the unity of God which the 
book presents is emphasized with Jewish force, but 
it is wanting in the high spirituality of the best 
Jewish thought; it is also in some sense dualistic, 
while a marked dualism appears in the view of the 
world which is set forth. Jesus is represented, not 



The Apostolic Fathers. 1 1 7 

as the atoning Saviour of men, but as the ideal 
Prophet who saves by enlightening. The freedom 
of the will is affirmed, somewhat illogically, it must 
be confessed, in view of the dualism which pervades 
the book. Great liberty is used in the treatment of 
the Old Testament. Peter is represented as saying 
that some scriptures are true, and some are false ; 
and whatever does not agree with his own views he 
promptly rejects as spurious interpolation. Adam 
and the Patriarchs are idealized, and Christianity 
is essentially identified with Judaism ; though 
sacrifices are cast aside and circumcision is not 
inculcated. The ecclesiastical point of view is 
hierarchical. " Great importance is attached to 
baptism and the episcopacy; but James, rather 
than Peter, is represented as the head of the 
hierarchy, the highest authority in the church." 
" Remember," says Peter, " to shun the apostle or 
teacher or prophet who does not first carefully 
compare his preaching with [that of] James, who 
was called the brother of my Lord, and to whom 
was intrusted to administer the church of the 
Hebrews in Jerusalem." 

The ''Recognitions" was probably later than 
the " Homilies," since it shows a less wide depar- 
ture from the Catholic doctrine, evidently having 
been subjected to considerable modification. 

The main interest of this variform work lies in 
its supposed revelation of the great doctrinal con- 
flict in the early Church, and its expression of 



1 1 8 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

an anti-Pauline spirit. Baur and the Tubingen 
school supposed that in Simon the magician the 
writer has attacked St. Paul. Chapter xix. of the 
seventeenth homily is very clearly an assault upon 
the Apostle to the Gentiles. I give in conclusion 
the following condensed account by Dr. Salmon 
of the doctrinal character of this singular work. 
He says : — 

" The Clementines are unmistakably the production of 
that sect of Ebionites which held the book of Elchasai 
as sacred. . . . Almost all the doctrines ascribed to them 
are to be found in the Clementines. We have the doc- 
trine ... of successive incarnations of Christ, and, in 
particular, the identification of Christ with Adam ; the 
requirement of the obligations of the Mosaic Law, the 
rejection, however, of the rite of sacrifice ; the rejection of 
certain passages both of the Old and New Testaments ; 
hostility to the apostle Paul ; abstinence from the use of 
flesh ; the inculcation of repeated washing ; discourage- 
ment of virginity ; concealment of their sacred books 
from all but approved persons ; form of adjuration by 
appeal to the seven witnesses ; ascription of gigantic stat- 
ure to the angels ; and permission to dissemble the faith 
in time of persecution." 

3. The Apostolic Constitutions. This 
work which, like the preceding, was erroneously 
ascribed to Clement of Rome, consists, in its 
present form, of eight books, containing in more 
or less diffuse and hortatory form, precepts bear- 
ing on theology, ecclesiastical order, and Chris- 



The Apostolic Fathers. 1 1 9 

tian morals. Apostolic authority has often been 
claimed for this work, and the work itself begins 
in a form agreeable to this claim : " The apostles 
and elders to all those who from among the Gen- 
tiles have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ : grace 
and peace from Almighty God, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ, be multiplied unto you in the 
acknowledgment of Him." The first six books 
were probably the earliest known and are fre- 
quently referred to and quoted as " The Teaching 
of the Apostles " (To. hihaaicaXLa Toiiv 'Attoo-toXoop}, 
of which they are probably an expansion belong- 
ing to the third century. It has been remarked 
that the seventh book, which was known separately, 
in some parts bears " a curious resemblance to 
the Epistle of Barnabas." It is undoubtedly 
based on the "Didache." The eighth book was 
also an independent work, and is somewhat more 
legislative than any of the preceding. Notwith- 
standing that the " Constitutions " profess to be the 
work of the apostles, there is no clear reference to 
them before Eusebius. He rejects them as " spu- 
rious," and speaks of them as " so-called teachings 
of the apostles.'' Athanasius speaks of them in a 
similar manner. Both of these references, however, 
are a little uncertain, but in the fifth century an un- 
known writer distinctly refers to the eighth book. 

The " Constitutions" were well known in the sixth 
and seventh centuries. It is impossible that they 
should have been the work of the apostles, or even 



120 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

of apostolic men; nevertheless, their apostolicity 
has been at different times vigorously defended. 
Whiston, an eccentric scholar, devoted a volume 
to proving that the Apostolic Constitutions (in his 
own words) " are the most sacred of the canonical 
books of the New Testament; " for, he adds, 
" these sacred Christian laws or constitutions were 
delivered at Jerusalem, and in Mount Sion, by our 
Saviour to the eleven apostles there assembled after 
His Resurrection." In their present form they 
probably belong to the fifth century, but most of 
the materials of which they are composed ante- 
date the Council of Nice. Bunsen held that, with 
the exception of a few passages, they belonged to 
the ante-Nicene period, and that they were of 
Oriental origin. They were never received as 
authority in the Church, though they exercised 
great influence, especially in the Eastern Church. 

The " Constitutions " deal with the private be- 
havior proper for Christians, with the officers and 
service of the church, and with worship, and they 
contain considerable liturgical matter. Much space 
is given to the sacraments and the duties and powers 
of the clergy. The second book, which treats of 
the clergy, is much the longest of the first six, and, 
if we except the Apostolic Canons at the end of 
the eighth book, much the longest of the entire 
work. 

The " Apostolic Canons " consist of eighty-five 
rules for the guidance of the clergy, attached to the 



The Apostolic Fathers. 121 

eighth book of the " Constitutions." These rules, 
most of which had been in existence for a. long 
time, were collected about the beginning of the 
fifth century. The eighty-fifth rule fixes the 
canon of the New Testament, but includes, in 
addition to the writings which are now considered 
canonical, two epistles of Clement and the eight 
books of the " Constitutions." 

Barnabas. 

The notices in the New Testament of Barnabas, 
the companion of St. Paul, are familiar. His name 
appears among the Apostolic Fathers because of a 
writing, which very generally has been ascribed to 
him, known as the " Epistle of Barnabas." The 
tone of this writing is violently anti-Judaistic. It 
emphasizes strongly the spirituality of worship ; 
denies anything preparatory or disciplinary m 
Judaism, in the sense of training men for higher 
truths, yet admits that in Jewish history and econ- 
omy there are, to the spiritual perception, fore- 
shadowings of a Christian revelation. The writer 
maintains that God's covenant never belonged to 
the Jews, but to Christians. He vigorously affirms 
the entire abolition of the Jewish sacrifices, con- 
demns the Jewish fasts as not true fasts, and claims 
that God has given to Christians the Testament 
that Moses broke. The new covenant, founded 
on the sufferings of Christ, tends to the salvation 
of Christians, but to the destruction of Jews. 



122 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

These, — the sufferings of Christ and the covenant 
founded upon them, — the writer declares, are 
announced by the prophets; and he discovers 
types of Christ and prefigurations of Baptism and 
the Cross in the Old Testament sacrifices and sym- 
bols. He shows the spiritual significance of cir- 
cumcision and of the Mosaic precepts on different 
kinds of food. He claims that the true Sabbath 
was no longer the seventh day but the eighth, and 
represents God as saying, " I will make the begin- 
ning of the eighth day which is the beginning of 
another world ; " and he adds, " Wherefore also 
we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which 
also Jesus rose from the dead, and, having been 
manifested, ascended into the Heavens." The 
epistle closes with an exposition of the Two Ways : 
the Way of Light, and the Way of Darkness. 

The epistle of Barnabas was received in the 
early Church with great reverence, and by many 
it was esteemed as Scripture, in the supposition 
that its author was the companion of St. Paul. 
Clement of Alexandria, where the epistle was 
written and where it was earliest received, quotes 
it frequently, identifying the author with the Bar- 
nabas of the Acts, and calling him, sometimes the 
" Apostle," and sometimes the " Prophet," Barna- 
bas. Origen also held this view. At the present 
time scholars are about equally divided on the 
question of authorship. 

The date of the epistle has been a matter of 



The Apostolic Fathers. 123 

considerable dispute. From a reference in the 
epistle itself, it must have been written after the 
destruction of Jerusalem. It was probably written 
during the reign of Vespasian between 70 and 
79 A. D. 

The Didache. 

The manuscript of " The Teaching of the 
Twelve Apostles " was discovered by Philotheos 
Bryennios, metropolitan of Nicomedia, in the 
Jerusalem Monastery of the Most Holy Sepulchre 
in Constantinople, in 1873. Besides the " Didache," 
the manuscript contained : (1) " A synopsis of the 
Old and New Testaments in the Order of Books," 
by St. Chrysostom, (2) " The Epistle of Barnabas," 
(3) " The First Epistle of Clement of Rome to the 
Corinthians," (4) "The Second Epistle of Clement 
to the Corinthians," (5) the spurious " Epistle of 
Mary of Cassoboli," and (6) twelve pseudo-Igna- 
tian epistles. None of these, save the " Didache," 
were new, but the copies of the two epistles ascribed 
to Clement are the only complete copies known to 
be in existence. 

The Greek text of the " Didache " was published 
by Bryennios, with notes and prolegomena written 
in Greek, at the close of 1883, in Constantinople. 
The importance of this document was soon recog- 
nized, and all over Christendom it received the criti- 
cal attention of scholars. The name, " Didache," 
is simply the Greek word which means " leach- 



124 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

ing." The full title is " The Teaching of the Lord 
to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles." The 
phrase, " to the Gentiles," indicates the Jewish- 
Christian origin of the document. This writing is 
variously dated by scholars, — by Sabatier, as 
early as about 50 A. D. ; by Hilgenfeld, as late as 
160-190; by Harnack, Zahn, Lightfoot, Bestmann, 
and others, at intervening dates. There is nothing 
in the " Didache " to prevent us from ascribing it to 
a date as early as 70 A. D., and the whole character 
of the writing favors the view that it was produced 
before the close of the first century, or very early 
in the second. 

The " Didache" is the oldest manual of apostolic 
teaching and discipline that we have. It consists 
of sixteen brief chapters which naturally fall into 
two divisions. The first, consisting of the first 
six chapters, is doctrinal and catechetical, and sets 
forth two Ways : the Way of Life, and the Way of 
Death. It begins thus: — 

" There are two Ways, one of Life and one of Death ; 
but there is a great difference between the two Ways. 
Now the Way of Life is this : first, thou shalt love God 
who made thee ; second, thy neighbor as thyself; and all 
things whatsoever thou wouldst not have done to thee, 
neither do thou to another." 

The second part, consisting of the remaining ten 
chapters, gives directions concerning baptism, 
prayer, fasting, the eucharist, the love-feast, and 



The Apostolic Fathers. 125 

the treatment of apostles, prophets, bishops, and 
deacons, and closes with a solemn warning to 
watchfulness in view of the second coming of the 
Lord : — 

" Be watchful for your life ; let your lamps not be 
quenched and your loins not ungirded, but be ye ready; 
for ye know not the hour in which our Lord cometh. 
And ye shall gather yourselves together frequently, seek- 
ing what is fitting for your souls ; for the whole time of 
your faith shall not profit you, if ye be not perfected at 
the last season. For in the last days the false prophets 
and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be 
turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate. 
For as lawlessness increaseth, they shall hate one another 
and shall persecute and betray. And then the world- 
deceiver shall appear as a son of God ; and shall work 
signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into 
his hands ; and he shall do unholy things, which have 
never been since the world began. Then all created man- 
kind shall come to the fire of testing, and many shall be 
offended and perish ; but they that endure in their faith 
shall be saved by the Curse Himself," etc. 

I follow the rendering by Lightfoot. The clause 
rendered, " shall be saved by the Curse Himself," 
has occasioned considerable perplexity, but this 
rendering is approved by Bryennios, and Christ is 
called " The Curse " probably in allusion to 1 Cor. 
xii. 3 : " No man speaking in the spirit of God 
saith Jesus is accursed," and in allusion to the 
custom of both Jewish and heathen persecutors, 



126 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

who endeavored to compel Christians to curse 
Christ. 

The " Didache " quotes several passages from the 
Old Testament, and clearly alludes to a large num- 
ber; it quotes also from several books of the 
Apocrypha. From the New Testament the quota- 
tions are abundant, but they are almost entirely 
from the Gospel by St. Matthew. There are mani- 
fest allusions to the Acts, to five or six of St. 
Paul's epistles, to Hebrews, to First Peter, and to 
Revelation. There are also various phrases which 
seem to indicate, on the part of the writer, a 
knowledge of the Fourth Gospel, though there are 
no distinct quotations from it. 

The theology of the " Didache " is simple and ele- 
mentary. God is represented as the Creator, the 
Almighty Ruler, the heavenly Father, the perfect 
Providence, the Giver of all good gifts, the Author 
of salvation, and the object of worship. Christ is 
represented as Lord and Saviour, the servant and 
son of God, the author of the gospel, through 
whom knowledge and eternal life have been made 
known ; and, apparently, He is identified with the 
Jehovah of the Old Testament. 

The concluding thanksgiving prescribed for use 
in the celebration of the Eucharist is as follows : — 

"We give Thee thanks, Holy Father, for Thy holy 
name, which Thou hast made to tabernacle in our hearts, 
and for the knowledge and faith and immortality which 



The Apostolic Fathers. 127 

Thou hast made known unto us through Thy Son Jesus ; 
Thine is the glory for ever and ever. Thou, Almighty 
Master, didst create all things for Thy name's sake, and 
didst give food and drink unto men for enjoyment, that 
they might render thanks to Thee ; but didst bestow 
upon us spiritual food and drink and eternal life through 
Thy Son. Before all things we give Thee thanks that 
Thou art powerful ; Thine is the glory for ever and ever. 
Remember, Lord, Thy Church, to deliver it from all evil 
and to perfect it in Thy love ; and gather it together from 
the four winds — even the Church which has been sancti- 
fied — into Thy kingdom which Thou hast prepared for 
it ; for Thine is the power and the glory for ever and 
ever. May grace come and may this world pass away. 
Hosanna to the God of David. If any man is holy, let 
him come ; if any man is not, let him repent. Maran- 
atha. Amen." 

Sunday is designated as " the Lord's own day," 
and the proper observance of it is thus indicated : 
" On the Lord's own day gather yourselves to- 
gether and break bread and give thanks, first con- 
fessing your transgressions, that your sacrifice 
may be pure." The fourth and sixth days, that 
is, Wednesday and Friday, are designated as fast- 
days, and fasting is prescribed also before baptism. 
There is no allusion to the celebration of the 
Christian Passover, nor to the idea of Christ's 
death as an expiatory sacrifice. 

Of church officers only two are recognized, — 
bishops, or overseers, and deacons ; but mention 



128 From ^Jerusalem to Niccza. 

is made also of " apostles and prophets," who 
were evidently travelling teachers and evangelists. 

" Let every apostle, when he cometh to you, be re- 
ceived as the Lord ; but he shall not abide more than a. 
single day, or if there be need, a second likewise \ but if 
he abide three days, he is a false prophet. And when he 
departeth let the apostle receive nothing save bread, until 
he findeth shelter; but if he ask money he is a false 
prophet. . . . And every prophet teaching the truth, if 
he doeth not what he teacheth, is a false prophet. . . . 
And whosoever shall say in the Spirit, Give me silver or 
anything else, ye shall not listen to him ; but if he tell 
you to give on behalf of others that are in want, let no 
man judge him." 

The apostles and the prophets seem to be 
different functionaries, yet they are not sharply 
discriminated from each other. The " Didache" 
continues : — 

" Let every one that cometh in the name of the Lord 
be received ; and then when ye have tested him ye shall 
know him, for ye shall have understanding on the right 
hand and on the left. If the comer is a traveller, assist 
him, so far as ye are able ; but he shall not stay with you 
more than two or three days, if it be necessary. But if he 
wishes to settle with you, being a craftsman, let him work 
for and eat his bread. But if he has no craft, according 
to your wisdom provide how he shall live as a Christian 
among you, but not in idleness. If he will not do this, he 
is trafficking upon Christ. Beware of such men. 

"But every true prophet desiring to settle among you is 



The Apostolic Fathers. 129 

worthy of his food. In like manner a true teacher is also 
worthy, like the workman, of his food." 

The functions of the church officers, as indicated 
in the " Didache," seem to include also prophesying 
and teaching. Those to whom the writing is 
addressed are thus enjoined : " Appoint for your- 
selves, therefore, bishops and deacons worthy of 
the Lord, men who are meek and not lovers of 
money, and true and approved ; for unto you they 
also perform the service of the prophets and 
teachers. Therefore despise them not; for they 
are your honorable men along with the prophets 
and teachers." This instruction concerning the 
appointment of bishops and deacons, clearly indi- 
cates the very early date of the " Didache." 

Hermas. 

Hermas is the reputed author of " a curious and 
somewhat visionary book " called the." Shepherd,'* 
or " Pastor," which belongs probably to the clos- 
ing years of the first century. It is both men- 
tioned and quoted by writers in the latter half of 
the second century. The book is artless in style, 
and is marked by deep and earnest piety. Light- 
foot likens the " Shepherd " to the " Divina Corn- 
media," in the one respect that the author's own 
personal and family history is interwoven with the 
narrative, and made to subserve the moral purpose 
of the book; though "history plays a much less 

9 



130 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

important part here than in Dante's great poem." 
There is also a slight resemblance to Beatrice in 
the character of Rhoda. 

The centre of the geographical setting is Rome, 
where, undoubtedly, the work was written. Local- 
ities mentioned are the home of Hermas in the 
city, the road to Cumae, the Via Campana, and, in 
the ninth similitude, Arcadia. The last may have 
been the birthplace of Hermas. 

Though I have assigned the " Shepherd" to the 
last years of the first century, it must be said that 
the date of its composition is not certain. We 
know, however, that soon after the middle of the 
second century the work was in general circulation 
in both the Eastern and Western churches. It 
appears, also, that a Latin version of it was made 
about this time. Irenaeus of Gaul quotes from it 
with these words : " Well said the Scripture," — a 
fact which is noticed by Eusebius. It is fair to 
infer that, in the time of Irenaeus, the " Shepherd " 
was publicly read in the Gallican churches. Ter- 
tullian in Africa, and Clement and Origen in Alex- 
andria, all quote from it. By some of the Fathers 
the book was put on a level with inspired Scripture. 
Origen speaks of it as " very useful scripture, in 
my opinion divinely inspired." After Tertullian 
became a Montanist (about 200) he repudiated 
the " Shepherd " as too sensuous for his Puritan 
taste. 

The author of the Muratorian Canon allows the 



The Apostolic Fathers. 131 

" Shepherd " to be read privately, but denies it 
any place among the writings either of prophets 
or apostles. It was very popular, however, and 
was publicly read as Scripture in the churches in 
the second, third, and even as late as the fourth, 
centuries. Athanasius classes it with some of the 
deutero-canonical books of the Old Testament, 
and with " The Teaching of the Apostles," as not 
canonical but useful to be employed in catechetical 
instruction. 

The " Shepherd" has sometimes been called the 
" Pilgrim's Progress " of the early Church. The 
question of admitting it into the canon was dis- 
cussed in more than one council before 212 a. d. 
According to one old tradition the author is the 
Hermas who is mentioned in St. Paul's epistle to 
the Romans (xvi. 14). This view was held by 
Origen. According to another tradition it was 
the work of one Hermas, the brother of Pius I., 
and was written during the episcopate of Pius 
(140-155). This tradition is supported by the 
Muratorian Canon. The latter is inconsistent, 
however, in making Clement of Rome the con- 
temporary of Pius, and its testimony is much 
weakened by a manifest effort to discredit the 
work as being the product of a late author. Still 
another view, adopted by some recent critics, is 
that the " Shepherd " was the work of a third 
Hermas, and was written between 90 and 100 A. D. 
Zahn, who maintains this view, fixes upon 97 as 



132 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

the date of composition. The references to the 
Christian ministry in the work indicate a date as 
early as the latter part of the first century. Light- 
foot inclines to accept the tradition that the author 
was the Hermas of St. Paul. There is, however, 
much to be said in favor of the third view. 

The book opens with an introduction, consisting 
of four Visions and a Revelation. Then follows 
the main part of the book, consisting of the shep- 
herd's message to Hermas, in two divisions : the 
first consisting of Mandates, or Precepts, and the 
second consisting of Similitudes, or Parables ; that 
is, moral lessons taught by allegory. Preceding 
the first Vision, Hermas tells us that he had been 
sold to one Rhoda, with whom, " after many years," 
he fell in love. While on a journey to Cumae he 
slept and dreamed that he was in a vast and diffi- 
cult land in which he could make no progress. 
While he was praying and confessing his sins, 
Rhoda appeared to him from heaven and smilingly 
charged him with sin. This filled him with horror 
and grief. Rhoda explained her charge and dis- 
appeared. Hermas then sees an old woman in 
glistening raiment, sitting on a great white chair, 
with a book in her hand from which she reads. 
The words are terrible, but Hermas can remember 
none of them save the last, which comfort him. 
At length the old woman is led away toward the 
sea, saying, as she departs: " Play the man, Her- 
mas." This woman he thinks to be the Sibyl, but 



The Apostolic Fathers. 133 

later he finds that she is the Church, aged, because 
" she was created before all things." Before her 
departure she had given him a book which he 
sought to copy, but it was suddenly snatched 
from his hands. 

In the second vision Hermas is asked by the 
woman, who appears to him again, and who has 
now become youthful in face, but with her flesh 
and hair aged, if he had given the book to the 
elders. He is charged to write two little books 
ami to give them, one to Clement and one to 
Grapte. 1 Clement is to communicate the contents 
of his book to foreign cities, while Grapte is to 
instruct the widows and orphans. Hermas is to 
read the book " to this city along with the elders 
that preside over the church." 

In the third vision the woman, who had now 
become " altogether youthful and of exceeding 
great beauty, and her hair alone was aged," makes 
an appointment with Hermas to meet him in a 
retired place which he should choose. There she 
shows him, in a mystical vision, the building of the 
Church. In this vision he sees, surrounding and 
supporting the rising tower, seven women, who are 
named respectively, Faith, Continence, Simplicity, 
Guilelessness, Reverence, Knowledge, and Love. 
The relation of these to one another is thus indi- 

1 Grapte is unknown save by this reference. She probably was 
a prominent deaconess of the church in Rome and a contemporary 
of Clement. 



134 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

cated : " from Faith is born Continence, from 
Continence Simplicity, from Simplicity Guileless- 
ness, from Guilelessness Reverence, from Rever- 
ence Knowledge, from Knowledge Love." 

The change in the aspect of the woman from 
age to youth, symbolizes the change of the Church 
from a state of worldliness and doubt and repining 
to a state of revived faith and new devotion. 

In the fourth Vision Hermas sees in his way a 
great and terrible beast, which, however, he passes 
without suffering any harm. This beast is the type 
of coming persecution, from which he is assured 
that he shall escape by faithfulness to the Lord. 

The Visions proper are now completed. In the 
Revelation which follows the Visions, Hermas sees 
a man " glorious in his visage, in the garb of a 
shepherd, with a white skin wrapt about him, and 
with a wallet on his shoulders and a staff in his 
hand." This shepherd is the Angel of Repentance, 
and he delivers to Hermas certain Mandates and 
Similitudes, or Parables, which he is commanded 
to write down. 

These Mandates enjoin : (i) faith in the one only 
God; (2) simplicity and guilelessness ; (3) love of 
the truth; (4) purity from sensual lust; (5) long- 
suffering, "for. the Lord dwelleth in long-suffering, 
but the devil in an angry temper ; " (6) righteous- 
ness; (7) fear of the Lord and obedience to His 
Commandments; (8) temperance, defined as absti- 
nence from all that is wicked and the practice of 



The Apostolic Fathers, 135 

all that is good ; (9) firmness in trust toward God ; 
(10) cheerfulness, — under this head it is interest- 
ing to note that the author classes sorrow with 
doubtful-mindedness and an angry temper as dis- 
tinctly sinful : " Therefore clothe thyself in cheer- 
fulness, which hath favor with God always, and is 
acceptable to Him, and rejoice in it. For every 
cheerful man worketh good, and thinketh good, 
and despiseth sadness, but the sad man is always 
committing sin;" (11) discerning the spirits of 
prophecy: "By his life test the man that hath 
the divine Spirit; " (12) abstinence from evil de- 
sires and the cultivation of good desires. 

Concerning obedience to these commandments 
the shepherd pithily and truly says to Hermas, 
" If thou set it before thyself that they can be 
kept, thou wilt easily keep them, and they will not 
be hard ; but if it once enter into thy heart that 
they cannot be kept by a man, thou wilt not keep 
them." 

After the Mandates follow ten Similitudes, or 
Parables: (1) of the foreign city ; (2) of the elm 
and the vine. In this the idea set forth is that the 
rich man (the elm) by his wealth supplies the 
material needs of the poor man ; while the poor 
man (the vine), by his intercessions with God, sup- 
plies the spiritual wants of the rich man ; (3) of 
the withered trees: This world is the winter of 
the righteous, and in it they are indistinguishable 
from the sinners ; (4) of the trees, some withered 



136 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

and some sprouting: The withered trees are the 
sinners, and the " sprouting are the righteous who 
shall dwell in the world to come ; for the world to 
come is summer to the righteous, but winter to the 
sinners; " (5) of the vineyard and the good ser- 
vant, — showing the nature of a true fast; (6) of 
the shepherd and the sheep, in which is shown the 
punishment of evil self-indulgence ; (7) of the 
affliction of the head of the house for the sake of 
his family in order to bring them to repentance ; 
(8) of the willow and its brandies, — a parable of 
judgment and repentance; (9) of the twelve moun- 
tains and the rock with a gate and the building of 
the tower, — this very long and ingeniously elab- 
orate parable is also a parable of judgment and of 
redemption solely through Christ; (10) of the 
virgins who are henceforth to be the companions 
of the instructed Hermas. 

This outline is too brief to give an adequate idea 
of a curious and very interesting book. It is easy 
to see why it should have been so popular in the 
early Church. In essential particulars its teaching 
corresponds with that of the epistle of Clement 
and the apostolic epistles. I note certain points 
of special interest, in which light is thrown both 
upon the doctrine and the ethics of the Church at 
the time when it was written. In its slight refer- 
ence to the government of the Church it speaks of 
bishops and teachers and deacons. There is no 
discrimination between bishops and elders. 



. The Apostolic Fathers. 137 

On the subject of divorce, it allows the husband 
to divorce his wife for the one cause mentioned in 
the New Testament, but it forbids the aggrieved 
husband to marry again, and, in case of his wife's 
repentance, bids him receive her back: " If the 
husband receiveth her not, he sinneth and bringeth 
great sin upon himself, — nay, one who hath sinned 
and repented must be received, yet not often; for 
there is but one repentance for the servants of 
God. For the sake of her repentance, therefore, 
the husband ought not to marry." Second mar- 
riage is allowed, but discouraged. Concerning 
the man who takes a second wife, the shepherd 
says : " He sinneth not, but if he remain single, he 
investeth himself with more exceeding honor and 
with great glory before the Lord ; yet even if he 
should marry, he sinneth not." 

Fasting is permitted, apparently, but neither 
enjoined nor encouraged. When Hermas asks 
instruction on the subject of fasting the shep- 
herd tells him, "Fast thou (unto God) such a 
fast as this : do no wickedness in thy life, and serve 
the Lord with a pure heart; observe His com- 
mandments and walk in His ordinances, and let no 
evil desire rise up in thy heart, but believe God. 
Then if thou shalt do these things, and fear Him, 
and control thyself from every evil deed, thou 
shalt live unto God ; and if thou do these things, 
thou shalt accomplish a great fast, and one ac- 
ceptable to God." Furthermore, the shepherd 



138 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

commands Hermas, when he fasts, to reckon up 
the expense of that which he would have eaten 
and give it to some one in want. The shep- 
herd's instruction reminds us of Herrick's admir- 
able lines : — 

"Is this a fast, to keep 
The larder lean 
And clean 
From fat of veals and sheep ? 

"Is it to quit the dish 
Of flesh, yet still 
To fill 
The platter high with fish ? 

" Is it to fast an hour, 
Or ragg'd to go, 
Or show 
A downcast look and sour ? 

" No ; 't is a fast to dole 
Thy sheaf of wheat 
And meat 
Unto the hungry soul. 

" It is to fast from strife, 
From old debate 
And hate 
To circumcise thy life. 

" To show a heart grief-rent ; 
To starve thy sin, 
Not bin ; 
And that's to keep thy Lent." 



The Apostolic Fathers. 139 

Papias. 

Papias, born probably between 60 and 70 A. D., 
became bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, and, ac- 
cording to the " Chronicon Pascale," died a martyr 
not far from 160 A. d. He was the contemporary 
and companion of Polycarp, and, according to 
Irenaeus, he was a hearer of St John ; but Euse- 
bius argues from the words of Papias that, while 
he heard about the disciples from those who had 
known them, the John of whom he was immediately 
the hearer was not John the apostle, but " John 
the Elder," as Papias himself designates him. The 
statement of Papias is as follows : — 

" On any occasion when a person came [in my way] 
who had been a follower of the Elders, I would inquire 
about the discourses of the Elders, — what was said by 
Andrew or by Peter, or by Philip, or by Thomas or James, 
or by John or Matthew or any other of the Lord's dis- 
ciples, and what Aristion and the Elder John, the disci- 
ples of the Lord, say. For I did not think that I could 
get so much profit from the contents of books as from 
the utterances of a living and abiding voice." 

Late in his life, perhaps between 130 and 140 
A. D., Papias published his " Exposition of Oracles 
of the Lord," which Eusebius speaks of as extant 
in his time in five volumes. Only a few fragments 
of this work remain, in the form of quotations 
found in Irenaeus and Eusebius and other ancient 
writers. 



140 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

The chief interest in Papias lies in the light 
which his words throw on questions of New Testa- 
ment criticism. It is from him that we learn the 
authorship of the second Gospel. Concerning this 
he says : — 

" And the Elder said this also : Mark, having become 
the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately everything 
that he remembered, without however recording in order 
what was either said or done by Christ. For neither did 
he hear the Lord, nor did he follow him ; but afterwards, 
as I said, [attended] Peter, who adapted his instructions 
to the needs [of his hearers], but had no design of giving 
a connected account of the Lord's oracles. So, then, 
Mark made no mistake, while he thus wrote down some 
things as he remembered them ; for he made it his one 
care not to omit anything that he heard, or to set down 
any false statement therein." 

Papias also says that " Matthew composed the 
Oracles in the Hebrew language, and each one 
interpreted them as he could." The touching 
and powerful story told in the first eleven verses 
of the eighth chapter of St John's Gospel, which 
is now generally conceded by scholars to be an 
interpolation, is found in one of the fragments of 
Papias. This story, originally copied on the mar- 
gin of the Gospel manuscript, finally crept into the 
te*xt. It is probable that in this fragment Papias 
transmits a trustworthy oral tradition of primitive 
times. It is a great misfortune that so few frag- 
ments of the work of Papias remain, especially 



The Apostolic Fathers. 141 

since so much has unreasonably been made of 
the silence of Papias by some critics. Eusebius 
speaks rather disparagingly of him, saying that 
" he was very limited in his comprehension, as is 
evident from his discourses; " but something must 
be allowed to the prejudice caused by a difference 
in theological opinions. Eusebius was criticising 
Papias' view of the millennium. 

If some searcher for old manuscripts, in a se- 
cluded place in the East, should come across a 
genuine copy of the writings of Papias, the dis- 
covery would be hailed with enthusiastic delight 
by all the scholars of Christendom. 

Ignatius of Antioch. 

One of the most striking figures in the early 
church is Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, according 
to Eusebius, from 70 or 71 to 109 A. D. About 
no one in the second century has greater interest 
gathered than about Ignatius. Almost all the 
information concerning him that we possess is de- 
rived from letters supposed to have been written 
by him, and a letter written by Polycarp to the 
church in Philippi. 

Of the letters ascribed to Ignatius there are in 
all fifteen; eight of these, however, are now uni- 
versally rejected as spurious. The remaining 
seven exist in two forms, a longer and a shorter. 
Of these, the shorter are accepted by many leading 
critics as substantially genuine. It is impossible to. 



142 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

attain absolute certainty as to the Ignatian letters, 
but in consideration of all the evidence, it seems 
reasonable to hold, with Lightfoot, that the seven 
shorter letters are the true work of Ignatius, and 
especially, because their authenticity is so strongly 
supported by the letter of Polycarp to the Philip- 
pians ; of the authenticity of this letter there seems 
now no reasonable doubt. 

The main objection against the authenticity 
of the Ignatian letters is that they show a more 
fully developed view of the episcopacy than is 
shown by any other contemporary evidence. This 
is a real difficulty, for it is unquestionable that 
the episcopacy of the Ignatian letters is much" like 
that which we find in the beginning of the third 
century. But it must be admitted that the epis- 
copacy developed earlier in Asia Minor than in 
any other part of the empire. Ignatius seems to 
have been possessed with the idea of the Catholic 
Church more than perhaps any other man before 
Cyprian. In his letter to the church in Smyrna 
occurs this significant statement : "Wheresoever 
the bishop shall appear, there let the people be ; 
just as wheresoever Jesus Christ is, there is the 
universal Church (rj /cado\i/cr) ifc/c\r)<ria)." 

It has also been argued, as notably by Dr. Pflei- 
derer, that the story of Ignatius' journey as a pris- 
oner to be exposed to wild beasts in Rome is 
fiction ; for there is no other example in the 
second century of such a transportation of crim- 



The Apostolic Fathers. 143 

inals from the place of trial to the Roman amphi- 
theatre ; and therefore the letters of Ignatius must 
be a forgery. To this Dr. Ramsay replies : " It is 
a commonplace of history that the practice was 
usual. It was regulated by special enactments, a 
few of which are preserved to us. If among the 
small number of cases known to us of Christians 
exposed to wild beasts no parallel to Ignatius 
occurs, that is no argument against the general 
practice. Mommsen expressly argues that the 
words of the Apocalypse, that Rome was * drunk 
with the blood of the martyrs ' must be understood 
as referring to those who were condemned in 
Eastern provinces and sent to Rome for exe- 
cution." 

Dr. Ramsay dates the Ignatian letters and there- 
fore the martyrdom of Ignatius between 112 and 
117. This would put the death of Ignatius in a 
late, if not the last, year of Trajan's reign. There 
are some indications in the letters that the church 
in Ephesus had already been distinguished by the 
number of its martyrs, and this would seem to 
justify the inference both that the persecutions 
under Pliny had already taken place, and that the 
persecution of Christians had not been confined to 
Bithynia and Pontus ; but it is impossible to prove 
from the actual words of Ignatius that a general 
persecution was going on at the time when he 
wrote. The natural and prima facie inference to 
be drawn from his letters is that he suffered under 



144 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

a purely local persecution, which must have been 
brief, for in the course of his journey to Rome 
he learned that peace had been restored to the 
church in Antioch. Of the specific causes of this 
persecution of the church in Antioch we know 
nothing. I follow substantially Lightfoot, whose 
labors on this perplexed question have been unsur- 
passed in ability, thoroughness, and candor. 

There are many traditions clustered about the 
name of Ignatius which, however interesting they 
may be, cannot be trusted. One of these is that 
he introduced antiphonal chants into the service of 
the Church because in a vision he had seen angels 
praising God in antiphonal hymns. 

Ignatius was probably a Greek of Asia Minor. 
He bore also the name of Theophorus. This, con- 
strued in the passive voice, means " borne of 
God," whence we have the legend that he was one 
of the children whom Jesus received and blessed ; 
construed actively, it means "God-bearer," whence 
the legend that when, after his death, his heart 
was cut to pieces, the Name of Jesus was found in 
golden letters on every piece. 

Of his conversion and his early life we know 
absolutely nothing. Eusebius says simply that he 
succeeded Evodius as the second bishop of the 
church in Antioch. Some later writers have 
claimed that St. Peter was the first bishop of 
Antioch, which, of course, would make Ignatius 
the third ; but this is a baseless tradition. 



The Apostolic Fathers. 145 

In 109, according to Eusebius, but probably 
later, and possibly as late as 117, Ignatius was 
arrested and taken to Rome to be thrown to wild 
beasts in the Flavian amphitheatre. His route 
was probably from Antioch to Seleucia, and then 
by sea to Attalia in Pamphylia ; thence by land 
through Laodicea, Hierapolis, Philadelphia, and 
Sardis, to Smyrna. It has been observed that 
there is a suspicious similarity between the jour- 
ney of Ignatius and the travels of St. Paul in Asia 
Minor. In Smyrna he spent some time with Poly- 
carp, bishop of the church in that city. Here he 
wrote his letters to the churches in Ephesus, Mag- 
nesia, Tralles, and Rome. The last letter was 
written to dissuade the Christians in Rome from 
exerting any influence to prevent his martyrdom. 
He says : — 

"I dread your very love, lest it do me an injury; for 
it is easy for you to do what you will, but for me it is dif- 
ficult to attain unto God, unless ye shall spare me. . . . 
For if ye be silent and leave me alone, I am a word of 
God ; but if ye desire my flesh, then I shall be again a 
mere cry. ... I write to all the churches, and I bid all 
men know, that of my own free will I die for God, unless 
ye should hinder me. I exhort you, be ye not an un- 
reasonable kindness to me. Let me be given to the wild 
beasts, for through them I can attain unto God. I am 
God's wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts 
that I may be found pure bread [of Christ]. Rather 
entice the wild beasts, that they may become my sepul- 



146 From Jerusalem to Niccsa. 

chre and may leave no part of my body behind, so that 
I may not, when I am fallen asleep, be burdensome to 
any one. Then I shall be truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, 
when the world shall not so much as see my body." 

In this letter also he describes his journey in 
the following words: "From Syria even unto 
Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and sea, 
by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leo- 
pards, even a company of soldiers, who only wax 
worse when they are kindly treated. Howbeit 
through their wrong-doings I become more com- 
pletely a disciple ; yet I am not hereby justified." 

This letter to the Romans is the most interesting 
of the whole seven, and in it his evident passion 
for martyrdom finds the strongest expression. As 
with glowing mind and ardent desire he anticipates 
his fate, he exclaims : " Come fire and cross, and 
grapplings with wild beasts [cuttings and man- 
glings], wrenching of bones, hacking of limbs, 
crushings of my whole body, come cruel tortures 
of the devil to assail me ; only be it mine to attain 
unto Jesus Christ." In all the letters which were 
written from Smyrna Ignatius earnestly requests 
prayers on behalf of the church in Syria. 

While in Smyrna he received delegates from the 
churches in Tralles, Magnesia, and Ephesus. From 
Smyrna he was taken to Alexandria Troas. Here 
he wrote three more letters, two to the churches 
in Philadelphia and Smyrna and one to Polycarp. 



The Apostolic Fathers. 147 

Here also he learns that his beloved people in 
Syria once more have peace. He seems to have 
purposed to write other letters, but intimates that 
his departure from Troas was sudden. From 
Alexandria Troas he went by sea to Neapolis, 
the port of Philippi. In Philippi other martyrs 
joined the company and together they proceeded 
to Rome. 

The letters of Ignatius thus fall naturally into 
two groups : the first consisting of letters ad- 
dressed to the three Asia Minor churches, which 
he had not visited, and knew only by delegates, 
and one to the Romans, which apparently was sent 
on in advance of him by messengers ; the second, 
consisting of two letters to the churches with which 
he had become personally acquainted on his jour- 
ney, and one to the bishop Polycarp. 

The experience of Ignatius in his travels through 
Asia Minor strongly confirms the testimony of 
Pliny as to the multitude of Christians in that ter- 
ritory. It is interesting to note that the pagan 
Lucian's satire, " De Morte Peregrini," written 
about 165 A. D., was probably founded imme- 
diately upon his knowledge of the journey of 
Ignatius to Rome. 

The letters are of exceeding interest, not because 
of their intellectual force or range, but because of 
their intense earnestness, the simplicity of faith 
and the fervent devotion to Christ which they- 
manifest, and the light which they throw on the 



148 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

organization of the churches in Asia Minor in the 
early years of the second century. In them we 
notice, first, the clearly defined orders of the 
clergy which they indicate. Bishops are sharply 
discriminated from presbyters, and both of these 
from deacons. I quote some passages, selected 
almost at random, which will clearly set forth the 
ideas of Ignatius on church order. In the letter 
to the Magnesians he says : — 

" Seeing then that, in the aforementioned persons, I 
beheld your whole people in faith and embraced them, I 
advise you, be ye zealous to do all things in godly con- 
cord, the bishop presiding after the likeness of God and 
the presbyters after the likeness of the council of the 
Apostles, with the deacons also who are most dear to me, 
having been intrusted with the diaconate of Jesus Christ, 
who was with the Father before the worlds and appeared 
at the end of time. Therefore do ye all study conformity 
to God and pay reverence one to another ; and let no 
man regard his neighbor after the flesh, but love ye one 
another in Jesus Christ always. Let there be nothing 
among you which shall have power to divide you, but be 
ye united with the bishop and with them that preside over 
you as an ensample and a lesson of incorruptibility. 

Therefore as the Lord did nothing without the Father 
(being united with Him), either by Himself or by the 
Aposties, so neither do ye anything without the bishop 
and the presbyters." 

In the letter to the Trallians he says, " In like 
manner let all men respect the deacons as Jesus 



The Apostolic Fathers. 149 

Christ, even as they should respect the bishop as 
being a type of the Father and the presbyters as 
the council of God and as the college of Apostles. 
Apart from these there is not even the name of a 
church." " Ye should do nothing without the 
bishop," he says ; " but be ye obedient also to the 
presbytery, as to the Apostles of Jesus Christ our 
hope." He evidently contemplates the deacons 
as special ministers of the Eucharist, for he calls 
them " deacons of the mysteries of Jesus Christ." 
In his letter to the Ephesians he commends the 
presbyters for their harmony with the bishop in 
these words : " For your honorable presbytery, 
which is worthy of God, is attuned to the bishop, 
even as its strings to a lyre. Therefore in your 
concord and harmonious love Jesus Christ is 
sung." 

Ignatius apparently believed that on this matter 
of church officers he spoke by inspiration, for, in 
his letter to the Philadelphians, he says : " I 
spake with a loud voice, with God's own voice. 
Give heed to the bishop and the presbytery and 
deacons. . . . He in whom I am bound is my 
witness that I learned it not from the flesh of 
man; it was the preaching of the Spirit who 
spake on this wise : Do nothing without the 
bishop." 

In all the letters of Ignatius there is no trace of 
sacerdotalism, yet he seems to hold the sacramen- 
tal idea of the Eucharist, for he calls it " the flesh 



150 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

of our Saviour Jesus Christ;" but he also speaks 
of " the Gospel as the flesh of Jesus." In two of 
his letters he expressly warns his readers against 
Judaism ; for example, in the letter to the Mag- 
nesians, where he says : *' It is monstrous to talk 
of Jesus Christ and to practise Judaism. For 
Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Juda- 
ism in Christianity, wherein every tongue believed 
and was gathered together unto God." And in 
the letter to the Philadelphians he says : " But if 
any one propound Judaism unto you, hear him 
not ; for it is better to hear Christianity from a 
man who is circumcised than Judaism from one 
uncircumcised. But if either the one or the other 
speak not concerning Jesus Christ, I look on them 
as tombstones and graves of the dead whereon are 
inscribed only the names of men." 

He also warns his readers against Docetism. 
This Docetism, however, may have been a charac- 
teristic of the Judaizing heresy, traces of which he 
seems to have discovered in the churches of Asia 
Minor. If it be thought that the time of these let- 
ters is too early for the appearance of Docetic 
doctrine, it will be only necessary to recall the 
fact that there are notices of a Docetic tendency 
in the epistles of St. John, and that the " Gospel of 
St. Peter," a fragment of which was recently re- 
covered, and which is strongly marked by Docet- 
ism, was probably written soon after the date of 
the Ignatian letters. Besides, Gnosticism, which 



The Apostolic Fathers. 151 

appeared in the Church, germinally at least, as 
early as the time of St. Paul, was almost invariably 
Docetic. All of the epistles of Ignatius, except 
the one to the Romans, contain warnings against 
heresies. 

It is noteworthy that in his letter to the Romans 
he makes no reference to any bishop. The same 
is true of Polycarp's letter to the church in Phi- 
lippi. These are two significant notes indicating 
that episcopacy had not yet arisen outside of 
Asia Minor and Syria. The letters contain several 
passages specially worthy of remembrance ; for ex- 
ample : " Be perfect in your faith and love toward 
Jesus Christ, for these are the beginning and end 
of life, — faith is the beginning, and love is the 
end, — and the two being found in unity are God, 
while all things else follow in their train unto true 
nobility." Again : "It is better to keep silence 
and to be, than to talk and not to be. It is a fine 
thing to teach if the speaker practise." And still 
again : " He that truly possesseth the word of 
Jesus is able also to hearken unto His silence, that 
he may be perfect." 

His letter to Polycarp is full of strong counsel. 
Thus he says : " Stand thou firm, as an anvil when 
it is smitten. It is the part of a great athlete to 
receive blows and be victorious." It is possible 
that Ignatius personally knew St. John, though 
there is no reference to his acquaintance with the 
apostle in his letters ; yet in his religious thought 



152 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

he is evidently an ardent disciple of the school of 
St. Paul. In the first paragraph of his letter to 
the Smyrnseans, after the greeting, there is an 
admirable summary of apostolic doctrine, which 
has a decided Pauline flavor. 

Of the circumstances of Ignatius' death we 
have no certain knowledge. Polycarp, in his letter 
to the Philippians, written shortly after the time 
of the martyr's visit, apparently is aware of the 
fact of Ignatius' death, but not of the details, for 
he seeks information concerning this from the 
Philippians. In the " Acts of Ignatius," the clos- 
ing events of Ignatius' life are given in great 
detail, but this account has no historical value. 
Without doubt Ignatius died in the Flavian amphi- 
theatre, a martyr to his faith. 

Polycarp. 

Very different from Ignatius was his contem- 
porary and friend, Polycarp. Of his early life 
almost nothing is certainly known. He was born 
about the year 69 or 70. There are stories that 
he was a slave boy from the East and became the 
property of a wealthy lady in Smyrna, who, insti- 
gated by an angel in a dream, bought him and 
made him her steward. Moved by the spirit of 
benevolence, he gave away all her goods, but she 
suffered no loss, for, as fast as he gave the goods 
away they were miraculously replenished. 

For trustworthy information concerning Poly- 



The Apostolic Fathers. 153 

carp, we are indebted to the Ignatian letters, to a 
letter from the church in Smyrna to the church in 
Philomenium, which recounts the story of Poly- 
carp's martyrdom, and to Irenaeus. He was a 
fellow-disciple of Papias and a hearer of St. John, 
and he must have known many who were ac- 
quainted with the apostles. According to Tertul- 
lian, he was appointed bishop of Smyrna by St. 
John. Irenaeus says more generally that he was 
appointed " by the apostles." 

In a letter which Irenaeus wrote to the friend of 
his boyhood, Florinus, who had fallen into Gnos- 
ticism, he thus refers to their mutual early ac- 
quaintance with Polycarp : — ■ 

" For while I was yet a boy I saw thee in Lower Asia 
with Polycarp, distinguishing thyself in the royal court, 1 
and endeavoring to gain his approbation. For I have a 
more vivid recollection of what occurred at that time than 
of recent events (inasmuch as the experiences of child- 
hood, keeping pace with the growth of the soul, become 
incorporated with it) ; so that I can even describe the 
place where the blessed Polycarp used to sit and dis- 
course, — his going out, too, and his coming in — his 
general mode of life and personal appearance, together 
with the discourses which he delivered to the people ; also 
how he would speak of his familiar intercourse with John, 
and with the rest of those who had seen the Lord ; and 
how he would call their words to remembrance. What- 
soever things he had heard from them respecting the 

1 Probably the court of T. Aurelius Fulvus, proconsul of Asia- 



154 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

Lord, both with regard to His miracles and His teaching, 
Polycarp, having thus received [information] from the 
eye-witnesses, of the Word of life, would recount them 
all in harmony with the Scriptures. These things, through 
God's mercy which was upon me, I then listened to atten- 
tively, and treasured them up, not on paper, but in my 
heart ; and I am continually, by God's grace, revolving 
these things accurately in my mind." 

Of this passage Renan exquisitely says : " An 
echo of Galilee thus made itself heard at a distance 
of a hundred and twenty years on the shores of 
another sea." 

In his famous work " Against Heresies," Irenaeus 
says : — 

" But Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, 
and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was 
also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the church 
in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he 
tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old 
man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, de- 
parted this life, having always taught the things which he 
had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has 
handed down, and which alone are true." 

When Polycarp was somewhere between forty 
and forty-seven years of age, he, then being bishop 
of the church in Smyrna, received and entertained 
Ignatius, who was on his way to Rome to suffer 
martyrdom. We know little of the events of his 
long life. His letter to the Philippians, written 
shortly after Ignatius' visit, shows him to have 



The Apostolic Fathers. 155 

been a man of pure and gentle spirit, less ardent 
and impetuous than Ignatius, but quite as true in 
his faith. 

Near the close of his life, on account of the 
Easter controversy which had arisen in the Church, 
he went to Rome and had a conference with Ani- 
cetus, the bishop of the Roman church. Though 
both Polycarp and Anicetus were firmly fixed in 
their convictions, and though these convictions 
were antagonistic to each other, the discussion 
seems to have been entirely amicable. Anicetus 
was so won by the gentleness and dignity of the 
now venerable Polycarp, that he permitted him to 
celebrate the Eucharist in his church. During his 
stay in Rome, Polycarp was successful, probably 
quite as much by force of his spirit and his well- 
known character as by the force of his arguments, 
in converting many disciples of Marcion and 
Valentinus to the orthodox faith. 

Irenaeus relates an incident of this visit to Rome 
which, if it be true, shows us that Polycarp was 
not all meekness in the presence of recognized 
heresy. The story is that Polycarp on one occa- 
sion met Marcion the heretic, who said to him, 
" Dost thou know me ? " Polycarp answered, " I do 
know thee, the first-born of Satan." " Such," says 
Irenaeus, " was the horror which the apostles and 
their disciples had against holding even a verbal 
communication with any corrupters of the truth." 

We are reminded of a similar story, found also 



156 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

in Irenaeus, which is told of St. John, who fled in 
dismay from a public bath-house because Cerin- 
thus, the Gnostic, was within. Irenaeus, rebuking 
Florinus for his heresy, tells him that " if that 
blessed and apostolical presbyter (Polycarp) had 
heard any such thing, he would have cried out, 
and stopped his ears, exclaiming, as he was wont 
to do : * O good God, for what time hast Thou 
reserved me, that I should endure these things ! ' 
and he would have fled from the very spot, where 
sitting or standing, he had heard such words." 

Not long after Polycarp's visit to Rome, a severe 
persecution broke out in Smyrna, and one of the 
first victims was the venerable bishop. The church 
historians, following Eusebius and Jerome, have 
commonly placed this under the reign of Marcus 
Aurelius, but recent scholars, for example, Light- 
foot and others, have placed it as early as 155 or 
156 A. D., which would bring it under the reign of 
Antoninus Pius. A contemporaneous account of 
this persecution, and especially of the martyrdom 
of Polycarp, is preserved for us in a letter sent by 
the Smyrneans to the church in Philomelium. 
This letter, with the exception of one or two slight 
interpolations and of the concluding paragraph, is 
reasonably accepted as genuine. It was probably 
known to the satirist Lucian. It speaks of the 
martyrdoms which had taken place in Smyrna, 
and gives a detailed account of the last days of 
Polycarp. 



The Apostolic Fathers. 157 

The persecution seems to have been due to an 
outbreak of popular superstitious fury against the 
Christians. Among the many who suffered was 
one Germanicus, a right noble confessor, who en- 
couraged his companions in tribulation by his con- 
stancy and fearlessness. The proconsul wished to 
save him, and urged him to sacrifice; but the 
young man bravely met his fate, even dragging 
towards him the wild beast to which he was ex- 
posed. After his death the multitude raised the 
cry, " Away with the atheists ! Let search be 
made for Polycarp." Quintus, a newly arrived 
Phrygian, had ostentatiously pressed forward, and 
urged on others to the Christian's fate, but when 
he saw the wild beasts he lost heart, and, yield- 
ing to the proconsul, took the oath and offered 
incense. 

Polycarp, when he heard of the persecution, 
desired to remain in town, but finally yielded to 
persuasions and withdrew to a farm not far away 
from the city, where he spent his time in prayer 
with his companions. Three days before his 
arrest he fell into a trance, in which he saw his 
pillow on fire, and turning to those who were with 
him, he said, " It must needs be that I shall be 
burned alive." 

When sought for he went to another farm. Then 
his pursuers, not finding him, subjected two slave 
lads to torture, one of whom confessed the place 
of Polycarp's retreat. A troop of horsemen and 



158 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

gendarmes came forthwith to the cottage where 
the old bishop was found in bed. He still might 
have escaped, but saying, " The will of God be 
done," he came down and gave himself up. Giv- 
ing orders that food and drink should be served to 
his captors, he asked for an hour in which to pray. 
" On their consenting, he stood up and prayed, 
being so full of the grace of God, that for two 
hours he could not hold his peace, and those that 
heard were amazed, and many repented that they" 
had come against such a venerable old man." 

On the way to the city he was met by Herod, 
the captain of the police, and his father, Nicetus. 
These took him into their carriage and urged him 
to yield, saying: "What harm is there in saying 
' Caesar is Lord,' and offering incense?" But he 
refused. They then angrily thrust him out of the 
carriage, but he, though hurt by their roughness, 
went promptly on toward' the stadium. As he 
entered the stadium it is said he heard a voice 
from heaven, saying, " Be strong, Polycarp, and 
play the man." 

The proconsul asked him if he were Polycarp, 
and, receiving an affirmative answer, urged him to 
have respect to his age and to swear by the genius 
of Caesar, and to say, " Away with the atheists ! " 
Polycarp, stretching out his hands towards the 
multitude, said solemnly: "Away with the athe- 
ists ! " The magistrate pressed him more earn- 
estly, and said : " Swear the oath and I will release 



The Apostolic Fathers. 159 

thee ; revile the Christ." Polycarp answered : 
" Four-score and six years have I been His ser- 
vant, and he hath done me no wrong. How, then, 
can I blaspheme my King who saved me? " Being 
still urged to swear by the genius of Caesar, he 
said : " I am a Christian." Being exhorted to 
" prevail upon the people," Polycarp refused to 
defend himself. He was then threatened with wild 
beasts, but he only said : " Call for them ! for the 
repentance from better to worse is a change not 
permitted to us ; but it is a noble thing to change 
from untowardness to righteousness." 

He was threatened with fire, but the brave old 
bishop was unmoved. The multitudes, excited to 
fury, demanded that a lion should be let loose 
upon Polycarp, but this was refused by the magis- 
trate. Then a stake and fagots were prepared, 
and they were about to nail Polycarp to the stake, 
but he asked that he might remain at the pile 
unfastened ; so they simply bound him. 

A moment's respite was given him in which he 
might pray. This prayer is so beautiful and im- 
pressive that I quote it in full : — 

" O Lord God Almighty, the Father of Thy beloved 
and blessed Son, Jesus Christ, through whom we have 
received the knowledge of Thee, the God of angels and 
powers and of all creation and of the whole race of the 
righteous, who live in Thy presence ; I bless Thee for 
that Thou hast granted me this day and hour, that I 
might receive a portion amongst the number of martyrs 



i6o From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

in the cup of [Thy] Christ unto resurrection of eternal 
life, both of soul and of body, in the incorruptibility of the 
Holy Spirit. May I be received among these in Thy 
presence this day, as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, as 
Thou didst prepare and reveal it beforehand, and hast 
accomplished it, Thou that art the faithful and true God. 
For this cause, yea, and for all things, I praise thee, 
I bless Thee, I glorify Thee, through the eternal and 
heavenly High- Priest, Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, 
through whom with Him and the Holy Spirit be glory 
both now [and ever] and for the ages to come. Amen." 

After his prayer was ended the fire was lighted 
and the flame, rushing forth, was caught by the 
wind, so that it swelled out like a sail, not touching 
his body. At this an executioner was ordered to 
stab him with a dagger. The blood gushing from 
the wound extinguished the fire, but Polycarp was 
dead. The fire, however, was rekindled and the 
body was consumed. 

" So," says the letter, " it befell the blessed Poly- 
carp, who, having with those from Philadelphia 
suffered martyrdom in Smyrna, — twelve in all, — 
is especially remembered more than the others by 
all men, so that he is talked of even by the heathen 
in every place; for he showed himself not only 
a notable teacher, but also a distinguished martyr, 
whose maryrdom all desire to imitate, seeing that 
it was after the pattern of the Gospel of Christ." 

The only literary work of Polycarp that remains 
is his letter to the church in Philippi. This letter 



The Apostolic Fathers. 161 

was in response to one from the Philippians asking 
that we would transmit letters from them to Syria. 
It was accompanied also by letters which had been 
received in Smyrna from Ignatius in order that 
they might be read by the Philippians. 

Polycarp's letter contains earnest exhortations 
against heresy, and especially against greed and 
avarice, an example of which is mentioned in 
Valens, a former presbyter of the Philippian 
church, who had been guilty of covetousness and 
perhaps of fraud. 

Polycarp exhorts his readers to faithful endur- 
ance, and cites the example of the martyrs Igna- 
tius, Zosimus, and Rufus. He apparently knows of 
the death of Ignatius, but is ignorant of the details, 
and seeks information from the Philippians. 

Polycarp was not a great man intellectually, but 
he was pure and devoted and courageous. Through 
him we have transmitted into the second half of 
the second century the spirit and the teachings of 
the apostles. 

Of all this sub-apostolic literature, with the 
exception of the pseudo-Clementines, which are 
really later, two or three things remain to be said. 
None of these writings is great as literature ; they 
all lack artistic form, and they are unmarked by 
any strong intellectuality. But, first of all, they 
embody, with unswerving faithfulness of testimony, 
the fundamental facts of the Christian Revelation, 



1 62 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

and they all have their centre in Jesus Christ, the 
Son of God and Saviour of the world. Secondly, 
they are characterized by great purity and eleva- 
tion of moral tone ; they bear the impress of the 
moral ideal which Christ exhibited. This differ- 
ences them to a degree which it is difficult to 
exaggerate, from all contemporary pagan litera- 
ture. The morality of these writings is the morality 
of Christ, which is righteousness, the application 
of divine love to the whole of human conduct. 
This quality gives to productions which often are 
intellectually commonplace a distinction greater 
and more important than any which dialectical 
skill or rhetorical brilliancy or even speculative 
scope and power alone could impart. 

The Life implanted by Christ was deeply rooted 
in the Church. In a little time that Life appro- 
priated to itself, not only all the forms of pagan 
literature, but also its essential truths, the best ele- 
ments of its culture, and its greatest powers of 
philosophical grasp and insight; and these it ex- 
alted into means for the expression and vindication 
of the Christian conception of God and the world 
and human life and destiny. It is one spirit which 
underlies and informs the artless epistle of Clement 
of Rome and the culture-laden " Stromateis " of 
Clement of Alexandria, the fervent and nai've 
" Letters of Ignatius," and the massive and pro- 
found " First Principles " of Origen. 



THE STRUGGLE WITH HEATHENISM: 
THE PERSECUTIONS. 

AT the beginning, neither all that was involved 
in Christianity, nor the full enterprise which 
it proposed to its adherents, was apparent to 
believers. Naturally, despite the transcendent 
influence of Jesus, the gospel was more or less 
shaped by the mould which was furnished for it in 
the minds, the training, and the temper of the 
first Christians. These were, of course, Jews, and 
to some extent Jewish ideals determined both 
their conception of the gospel and their purpose. 
There is no doubt that some, at least, of the primi- 
tive Jewish Christians, believed that the gospel 
was a new revelation addressed solely to the 
children of Abraham and designed for their salva- 
tion as a people. At any rate there was, at first, 
no break with Jewish traditions, and no abandon- 
ment of Jewish forms ; and the Jewish disciples 
evidently looked for speedy deliverance, both 
from foreign tyranny and from earthly woes, 
through the reappearance of their Messiah in great 
glory and power to judge the world and com- 
pletely establish His Kingdom. 

With the coming of St. Paul upon the field of 
action a new and startling breadth was given to 



164 From yerusalem to Niccea. 

the Christian idea. Pauline Christianity contem- 
plated the conquest of the world by the Christian 
faith. It is apparent at once that St. Paul was 
truer to Christ, in his interpretation of Christ's 
mission and his preaching of the gospel, than 
any of the other apostles had been previous to his 
entrance upon the work. It is easy for us now to 
see that Christianity proposed to its adherents the 
conquest of the entire world by the spiritual forces 
that resided in the gospel as a divine message, 
and by the wisdom and strength of the Lord con- 
tinuously abiding in them and working through 
them. They were called to a gigantic task. The 
very breadth of their enterprise is some true meas- 
ure of the difficulties which they must encounter. 
They had to meet the universal sinfulness and sel- 
fishness of the human heart, the narrowness and 
exclusiveness of the Jewish temper and religion, 
the jealousy and hostility of pagan religions, the 
antipathetic spirit, customs, and organization of 
pagan society, and the opposition of the Roman 
government. Strife was inevitable. Jesus had 
prophetically said, " I came not to cast peace in 
the earth, but a sword." The Christian expe- 
rience of the first three centuries was a tragical 
fulfilment of these words. 

The opposition which, in its struggle for exist- 
ence, Christianity had to meet was: (a) Social, 
(#) Religious, and (V) Political; and three forms 
of hostile influence played upon it: (1) The drift 



Struggle with Heathenism. 165 

of life; (2) Brute force; and (3) Intellectual criti- 
cism. Or, to put the case still more concisely, 
the opposition which Christianity, in its conflict 
with heathenism, had to overcome in order, not 
only to accomplish its mission, but even to sur- 
vive, was: (1) Objective, or that which took the 
form of persecution ; and (2) Subjective, or that 
which took the form of hostile criticism. In this 
lecture we are to consider the struggle of Chris- 
tianity with heathenism on its objective side. 

Quite from the beginning Christians were sub- 
jected to persecution, and, with infrequent inter- 
ruptions, this persecution continued in various 
forms until about the end of the first decade of 
the fourth century. At first the persecutions were 
entirely Jewish. This was due to the fact that 
Christianity was for a time confined to Palestine, 
and also to the fact that until Christianity began 
to disclose its true nature, through the influence 
of Paul's preaching and by its rapid development 
throughout the empire, Romans confounded Chris- 
tians with Jews, — looking upon the followers of 
Christ as merely a Jewish sect. Apparently not 
until the time of Nero (54-68 A. D.) did the Roman 
government begin to discriminate between Jews 
and Christians. The infant Church suffered, first 
of all, from the same spirit in the Jews which had 
brought Jesus to the cross. Stephen was the first 
of several distinguished martyrs who were the vic- 
tims of Jewish hate. This antipathy of the Jews to 



1 66 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

their Christian fellow-countrymen manifested itself 
not only in Palestine but also in Asia Minor and 
in other parts of the empire. In the time of the 
revolt of Barcochba (132-135), in the reign of 
Hadrian, Jewish hostility to Christians caused the 
violent death of many. During those two or 
three years of revolutionary turbulence all Chris- 
tians who fell into the hands of the Jews and 
refused to renounce Christ and join in the revolt 
against Hadrian were subjected to severe perse- 
cution. 

Though this was the last independent act of 
hostility toward Christianity on the part of Juda- 
ism, yet, says Guericke: "In all the succeeding 
pagan persecutions, the Jews, now scattered 
throughout the whole world, distinguished them- 
selves by rendering an eager assistance to the 
Gentile enemies of Christianity." 

The reasons for the opposition of the Jews as a 
people to Christianity are apparent, for the atti- 
tude of the latter toward Judaism seemed to 
menace all that the Jew held most dear. The first 
outbreak of popular fury at Jerusalem was ani- 
mated by the same spirit as that which led the 
Pharisees and Sadducees to seek the destruction 
of Jesus, and was mainly local ; but the teaching of 
St. Paul, and the extension of the gospel to the 
Gentiles, made a distinct and irreparable break 
between the gospel and Judaism as a system. 
Pauline Christianity abolished circumcision, the 



Struggle with Heathenism. 167 

sacrifices, the priesthood, and the authority of the 
Mosaic law, and contradicted at once the ideas 
and the hopes which were vital to Judaism. 

But it should J)e said that the Church as a whole 
did not suffer greatly from Jewish persecution, in 
comparison with what it suffered from the perse- 
cutions which afterwards arose from Gentile 
sources. Our main concern, therefore, is with 
the struggle of Christianity with heathenism. The 
Gentile persecution of the Christians was of two 
kinds, which we may designate as Popular and 
Political. Political persecution, or persecution by 
the state, did not arise until the early part of the 
second century. The earlier Roman persecutions, 
those under Nero and Domitian, were the re- 
sults of personal tyranny and caprice, and not of 
intelligent and deliberate attempts to check or 
suppress Christianity. Some notice of these per- 
secutions will be given later. 

Before I begin an historical sketch of the various 
persecutions which arose against Christians during 
the period covered by these lectures, I invite you 
to study briefly the causes and characteristics (1) 
of the popular hostility to Christianity and (2) of 
the hostility of the state. 

(1) The popular antipathy to the early Chris- 
tians, if not justifiable, is at least explicable, and in 
some sense rational ; that is, if we can take the 
pagan's point of view. Christianity by its very 
nature was aggressive. The consciousness of its 



1 68 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

mission, awakened in the Church, first, by St. 
Paul, rapidly grew into clearness and strength as 
the Church increased in numbers and in the 
extent of its conquests. Christians, though, they 
illustrated a loftiness of virtue which the noblest 
teachings of paganism had been unable to produce, 
save in rare instances, were from the first intol- 
erant of religions other than their own. They 
believed that it was their mission to announce a 
universal faith, and that the polytheistic and idola- 
trous religions which everywhere they encountered 
were the product and expression of demonic intel- 
ligences. Their intolerance was all the more 
intense, and, it must be said, all the more justifi- 
able, because the pagan religions were permeated 
with immorality. To yield to them in any degree 
would be both to deny the supremacy of Christ 
and to abandon the pure righteousness which 
Christ exemplified and which He held up as the 
authoritative standard and ideal of His followers. 

The attitude of Christianity was, therefore, one 
calculated to excite antagonism. It proposed 
uncompromisingly the abolition of the religious 
beliefs and customs which were the heritage of 
the various peoples. Christians, because they 
worshipped no visible God and had no temples, 
were naturally looked upon and denounced as 
atheists. Excluded by their principles from the 
greater part of the amusements and festivities of 
the heathen world, which were everywhere charac- 



Struggle with Heathenism. 169 

terized by idolatrous ideas and practices, they 
drew to themselves, naturally, the charge of unso- 
ciability, and by the more passionate and bitter of 
the heathen they were denounced as " haters of 
the human race." In so far as the teaching of the 
gospel waa successful, it withdrew men from those 
occupations which were identified with idol-wor- 
ship, and caused them to withhold patronage from 
tradesmen whose every act of buying and selling 
was consecrated by some pagan ceremony. Thus 
Christians aroused against themselves the intense 
hostility of the manufacturing and mercantile 
classes. The necessary separation of the Chris- 
tians from much of the social and civic life of the 
pagans inevitably caused serious division of fami- 
lies, whenever one or more members of a family 
accepted the gospel. Furthermore, priests and 
the popular teachers and philosophers rapidly 
lost their occupation as Christianity extended its 
influence and increased the number of its adher- 
ents. Thus two powerful classes, the sacerdotal 
and the pedagogic, or rhetorical, were arrayed 
against the Christians. As an illustration I may 
cite the case which Eusebius gives us of Crescens, 
a philosopher of the Cynic school, who, refuted in 
a discussion by Justin Martyr, in a spirit of venge- 
fulness, denounced him as a Christian and thus 
caused his death. 

The pure morality of the Christians, also, was a 
continual rebuke of the vices and immoralities of 



170 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

the people. Vice, when it is in the majority, does 
not long endure even the silent condemnation 
which manifest virtue pronounces upon it Thus 
fashion, trade, religion, philosophy, and the spirit 
of licentious self-indulgence, all arrayed themselves 
powerfully against the new faith. A common and 
fruitful source of persecution was the prevalent 
superstition of the masses. The occurrence of 
plague, or famine, or disaster by fire and flood, 
was attributed by the people to the wrath of the 
gods because of the neglect of their worship which 
the spread of Christianity caused. Again and 
again were popular outbreaks against the Chris- 
tians motived by the superstitious fears of the 
multitude ; and, since nothing is so cruel as fear, 
these outbreaks were characterized by exces- 
sive ferocity. Tertullian thus scornfully exclaims : 
" They think the Christians the cause of every 
public disaster, of every affliction with which the 
people are visited. If the Tiber rises as high as 
the city walls, if the Nile does not send its waters 
up over the fields, if the heavens give no rain, if 
there is an earthquake, if there is famine or pesti- 
lence, straightway the cry is, ' Away with the 
Christians to the lion !' " 

The popular antipathy to the Christians, and 
the popular ignorance of the meaning of their 
simple rites, led to various charges against them 
of horrible immoralities. I have already men- 
tioned the common charges of " atheism " and 



Struggle with Heathenism. 171 

" hatred to the human race." In addition to these, 
because of the utter popular misapprehension of 
the Christian ayd7rat, or love-feasts, and the cele- 
bration of the Eucharist, Christians were charged 
with indulging in " Thyestean banquets," — with 
eating human flesh and blood (under which we 
see a coarse but explicable caricature of the cele- 
bration of the Eucharist), — and with licentious 
orgies of a most revolting character. They were 
also charged with magic and with treason, — the 
latter, often, because of their refusal to sacrifice to 
the images of the emperors. 

The Christian Apologies of the time indicate, 
by their very denials, the character of the evil 
spirit and customs with which Christians were 
charged, and throw a strong gleam of light on the 
prevalent immorality of the society in the midst 
of which they lived. For example, says Justin 
Martyr: "We who formerly delighted in fornica- 
tion, now strive for purity. We who used magical 
arts, have dedicated ourselves to the good and 
eternal God. We who loved the acquisition of 
wealth more than all else, now bring what we 
have into a common stock and give to every one 
in need. We who hated and destroyed one 
another, and on account of their different manners 
would not receive into our houses men of a differ- 
ent tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live 
familiarly with them. We pray for our enemies, 
and we endeavor to persuade those who hate us 



172 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

unjustly to live conformably to the beautiful pre- 
cepts of Christ, to the end that they may become 
partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a 
reward from God the Ruler of all." 

The author of the Epistle to Diognetus, a noble 
anonymous writing of the middle of the second 
century, thus vindicates the character of the Chris- 
tians : " They dwell in their own countries, but 
only as sojourners ; they bear their share in all 
things as citizens, and they endure all hardships as 
strangers. Every foreign country is a fatherland 
to them, and every fatherland is foreign. They 
marry like all other men and they beget children ; 
but they do not cast away their offspring. They 
have their meals in common, but not their wives. 
They find themselves in the flesh, and yet they 
live not after the flesh. Their existence is on 
earth, but their citizenship is in Heaven. They 
obey the established laws, and they surpass the 
laws in their own lives. They love all men, and 
they are persecuted by all. They are ignored, 
and yet they are condemned. They are put to 
death, and yet they are endued with life. They 
are in beggary, and yet they make many rich. 
They are in want of all things, and yet they abound 
in all things. They are dishonored, and yet they 
are glorified in their dishonor. They are evil 
spoken of, and yet they are vindicated. They 
are reviled, and they bless ; they are insulted, 
and they respect. Doing good they are punished 



Struggle with Heathenism. 173 

as evil-doers ; being punished they rejoice, as if 
they were thereby quickened by life. War is 
waged against them as aliens by the Jews, and 
persecution is carried on against them by the 
Greeks, and yet those that hate them cannot tell 
the reason of their hostility." 

Tertullian, in his Apology, thus challenges the 
persecutors of the Christians : " And here we call 
your own acts to witness, you who are daily pre- 
siding at the trials of prisoners, and passing sen- 
tence upon crimes. Well, in your long lists of 
those accused of many and various atrocities, has 
any assassin, any cutpurse, any man guilty of 
sacrilege, or seduction, or stealing bathers' clothes, 
his name entered as being a Christian too? Or 
when Christians are brought before you on the 
mere ground of their name, is there ever found 
among them an ill-doer of the sort? It is always 
with your folk the prison is steaming, the mines 
are sighing, the wild beasts are fed ; it is from you 
the exhibitors of gladiatorial shows always get 
their herds of criminals to feed up for the occa- 
sion. You find no Christian there, except simply 
as being such; or if one is there as something 
else, a Christian he is no longer." 

(2) Political persecution, or persecution sanc- 
tioned and directed by the state, did not begin, as 
I have already said, until the early part of the 
second century. This was due to the fact that not 
until the Church had attained considerable devel- 



174 From Jerusalem to Niccsa. 

opment did it reveal, or itself recognize, its real 
attitude toward the state ; and not until compara- 
tively late did the Roman emperors begin to 
understand the significance of the new religious 
movement in the empire, and to suspect the con- 
sequences which it involved for the state. The 
policy of Rome toward the religions of conquered 
peoples was characterized by tolerant indifference. 
It was a part of the political wisdom of Rome that 
it did not attempt to exasperate subject peoples 
by taking away their gods, or interfering more 
than was necessary with the internal life of those 
peoples. But Christianity, when its real claims 
were understood and something of its real nature 
began to be appreciated, could not be put in the 
same category with ethnic religions. 

We must remember that Christianity was at 
first conceived of as the cult of a Jewish sect; 
there was no discrimination between it and the 
religion of the Jews. It is true, as Ramsay sug- 
gests, that persecutions by the state were deter- 
mined by the convictions and purposes of the 
reigning emperor; hence the best emperors, those 
who were most thoughtful and conscientious, natu- 
rally proved the most severe persecutors. The 
Roman religion was the expression of Roman 
patriotism. It was the bond of Roman unity and 
the pledge of Roman prosperity. The claim of 
Christianity as the universal religion could not for 
one moment be allowed by the ruler who was 



Struggle with Heathenism. 175 

patriotically devoted to the empire. It is quite 
intelligible therefore that, as Ramsay says, " Sever- 
ity, degenerating even into cruelty, is character- 
istic of the best and most upright class of Roman 
governors ; lenity, as a general rule, was the result 
only of weakness, of partiality, or of carelessness." 
Trajan seems to be the first to have had any 
glimmering sense of what the spread of Chris- 
tianity meant, yet both Trajan and his immediate 
successor were suspicious of Christianity'more on 
account of its political than of its distinctively reli- 
gious aspect. Under the vigorous administration 
of Pliny in Bithynia and Pontus, the force of the 
government was directed mainly to the suppres- 
sion of Christians as forming collegia, or sodalitates, 
an edict against such organizations having been 
promulgated on the express ground that they 
involved political danger. This difficulty the 
Christians met by giving up certain social meet- 
ings and adapting their organization to the require- 
ments of the edict; but in the meantime many 
suffered the extreme penalty of the law. From 
the time of Trajan onward, the more thoughtful 
and patriotic emperors viewed the growth of 
Christianity with ever deepening solicitude. Em- 
perors like Marcus Aurelius proscribed Christian- 
ity distinctly as a religion, but under the Flavian 
emperors the ground of procedure against it was 
its character as a quasi-political organization. 
There was profound reason for this. The situa- 



176 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

tion of the Church, surrounded as it was by hos- 
tile elements, forced upon it the development of a 
coherent organization. This, in time, inevitably 
attracted the attention of the state. It was then 
seen that in the Church a new empire was growing 
up within the empire. 

Before the middle of the second century each 
Christian community was ruled by a bishop whose 
authority tended to become ever more strong. The 
bishops of the various communities, closely bound 
to each other by a common purpose, were officially 
related through synods. The letters of Ignatius 
undoubtedly powerfully influenced the Church in 
that line of ecclesiastical development along which 
the exigencies of the Church's experience urged 
it. The churches, internally united by a common 
faith, a common aim, and the conviction of a com- 
mon destiny, were more closely unified by the 
pressure of external forces. The means of com- 
munication, established during the reign of Augus- 
tus, admirably served the Church by enabling it, 
through frequent messengers passing to and fro 
between the various parts of the empire, to de- 
velop and to keep vivid a common consciousness. 
In the very nature of the case the Church was a 
political force of ominous power. 

The attitude of Christians toward the state was 
that of scrupulous obedience to all laws not con- 
flicting with their faith ; but laws which were 
contrary to their faith they must die rather than 



Struggle with Heathenism. 177 

obey. Under the influence of the persecutions the 
idea of a radical antagonism between the Kingdom 
of God and the Roman state arose and increased in 
strength, until, during the latter part of the second 
century, it was not uncommon for martyrs, as 
they went to the stake or to wild beasts in the 
amphitheatre, confidently to prophesy the speedy 
overthrow of the empire. The influence of these 
prognostications naturally was to increase the hos- 
tility of the pagan officials and to aggravate the 
persecutions. Maintaining a unity independent of 
the imperial unity, and at every point where their 
faith came in contact with idolatry opposed to 
that unity, the Christians were unquestionably 
maintaining an organization that was contrary to 
the fundamental principles of Roman government. 
On this point Ramsay says : — 

"Rome had throughout its career made it a fixed 
principle to rule by dividing ; all subjects must look to 
Rome alone ; none might look toward their neighbors, 
or enter into any agreement or connection with them. 
But the Christians looked to a non-Roman unity ; they 
decided on common action independent of Rome ; they 
looked on themselves as Christians first, and Roman sub- 
jects afterwards ; and, when Rome refused to accept this 
secondary allegiance, they ceased to feel themselves Ro- 
man subjects at all. When this was the case, it seems idle 
to look about for reasons why Rome should proscribe the 
Christians. If it was true to itself, it must compel obedi- 
ence ; and to do so meant death to all firm Christians.' 7 



178 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

Had the emperors, as early as the time of 
Trajan, or even as early as the time of Marcus 
Aurelius, understood the real significance of Chris- 
tianity ; had they perceived that the Christian idea 
was more in accord with the imperial idea than 
that of any or all of the heterogeneous religions 
which then existed ; and had they, recognizing 
that the chief menace to the empire was the moral 
deterioration of the masses of the people, and that 
Christianity bore in itself the only effective check 
to this, and thus recognizing something of the 
real significance of the new religion, sincerely 
welcomed it as an ally, — it is not too much to 
say that the Roman Empire would have taken a 
new lease of life which would have preserved its 
integrity and carried it far down the centuries. 
This, however, is rather more speculative than 
practical. It would be too much to hope that an 
emperor, even of such catholic mind as Hadrian 
himself, could have risen to the mighty occasion 
and changed thus early the whole course of civil- 
ization. From the moment when Christianity was 
recognized as a religion, distinct from that of the 
Jews, down to the time of Gallienus (259-268 
A. D.), it was distinctly an illicit religion, and perse- 
cution of its adherents was always lawful. In fact, 
Christianity was an illicit religion, despite the 
friendly edict of Gallienus, until the " Edict of 
Milan " in 313. 

The history of the persecutions must be told 



Struggle with Heathenism. 179 

here with great brevity. It was common for a 
long time to speak of the " ten persecutions," — a 
number suggested by the ten plagues of Egypt, 
and perhaps also by the ten kings making war 
against the Lamb, in Rev. xvii. 14, — namely, 
those under Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus 
Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Maximin, Decius, 
Valerian, Aurelian, and Diocletian. But, as a 
matter of fact, there were both less and more 
than ten persecutions ; for, in addition to those 
mentioned, there were persecutions under Hadrian 
and Antoninus Pius, and the only two of the 
persecutions that prevailed throughout the empire 
were those under Decius and Diocletian. 

A little more than three decades after Pentecost 
the first Roman persecution began under Nero. 
On the night of July 18th, 64 A. d., fire broke out 
in the Jews' quarter of Rome and raged six days 
and nights. After it was subdued, it broke out in 
another quarter and raged three days. Of the 
fourteen regions of the city only four entirely 
escaped. The calamity was immeasurable. It was 
rumored, and the people believed, that Nero was the 
instigator of the fire,. Tacitus declares that nothing 
which was done " availed to relieve Nero from the 
imfamy of being believed to have ordered the con- 
flagration." It is not possible to determine now 
whether or not the report was true. This much, 
however, is true, that, in order to counteract the 
damaging rumor, Nero charged the crime upon 



180 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

the Christians and punished them with the most 
exquisite tortures. 

Already there was sufficient antipathy, both 
Jewish and pagan, against the Christians to aid Nero 
in carrying out his malign purpose. Some Chris- 
tians were arrested, and if they could not be con- 
victed of kindling the fire, they could be condemned 
for " hating the human race." A carnival of blood- 
shed followed. Says Tacitus : " First those were 
seized who confessed they were Christians ; next, 
on their information, a vast multitude were con- 
victed." Upon these the most horrible torments 
were employed and new methods of execution were 
invented. Some were crucified, and others were 
sewn in the skins of wild beasts and worried by 
dogs. Christian women were made to personate 
heathen goddesses on the stage for the amuse- 
ment of spectators, and, after suffering outrageous 
insults, were bound to a raging bull and dragged 
to death. 

In the evening the horror reached its climax, 
for the brutalized populace assembled in Nero's 
garden to behold a spectacle at once magnificent 
and fiendish. Christians, swathed from head to 
foot in tow that was saturated with pitch, were 
bound to stakes of pine and burned as torches, 
while Nero drove about attired as a charioteer, 
and the crowds shouted with delight. A reaction 
set in, however, begotten by the brutality of Nero, 
and a feeling of compassion toward the sufferers 
arose " because they seemed not to be cut off for 



Struggle with Heathenism. 181 

the public good, but victims to the ferocity of one 
man." 

This was the first pagan persecution of the 
Christians, and was confined to Rome. One of its 
effects was to give Nero an infamous prominence in 
the minds and in the writings of Christians, as the 
very incarnation of Anti-Christ. From the time of 
Nero until the time of Domitian we hear of no 
more persecutions, nor were there any, apparently, 
during the earlier years of Domitian's reign. In 
the later years of his reign Domitian's avarice and 
suspiciousness marked both Jews and Christians as 
victims ; indeed, he does not seem to have discrim- 
inated clearly between the two, and many illustrious 
Romans also suffered from his cruelty. Of the latter, 
some were the victims of his blind and malignant 
fear of assassination, while others, whose estates 
he confiscated, were the victims of his avarice. It 
appears that some were condemned, formally, for 
defection from the religion of the state to Juda- 
ism (from which Christianity was not discrimi- 
nated), or, as the accusation sometimes reads, for 
" atheism." 

Two distinguished victims of this last charge 
were Flavius Clemens, the Emperor's own cousin, 
and Domitilla, wife of Clemens. The former was 
put to death after the close of his consulate, about 
96 A. D., and his wife was banished to the Island of 
Pandateria. There is a tradition that during this 
persecution St. John was taken to Rome and 
plunged in a caldron of boiling oil, from which 



1 82 From Jerusalem to Niccsa. 

he emerged unhurt, and then was banished to the 
isle of Patmos, where he is said to have written 
the Apocalypse. It was during this time also 
that Apollonius of Tyana perished, a victim of 
Domitian. This Apollonius was a wandering sage, 
much renowned for sanctity and wisdom, who had 
gathered about him a group of admiring scholars. 
Long after this time he figured as the Christ of 
Neoplatonism, a sort of pagan rival of Jesus, and 
many legends of his miraculous powers and deeds 
cluster about his name. In that later time it was said 
that Domitian threw him into prison, but he sud- 
denly disappeared from the sight of his judges, 
and in the evening presented himself to his friends 
at Pozzuoli. This story is evidently an imitation of 
the account in the Gospels of Christ's resurrection. 
Of Domitian's time there is a tradition, preserved 
by Eusebius, which in the main is credible.- The 
Emperor heard of some relatives of Jesus who were 
still living; he was much alarmed, and, summoning 
them before him, asked them if they were of David's 
race ; they confessed that they were. He asked 
them how much property they had, and they told 
him that they had between them only nine thousand 
denarii (about J^o), 1 and this, not in money, but, 
in a piece of land, 39 acres in extent, on which they 
raised their taxes and their living by their own 
labor. They exhibited their hands showing 
callouses caused by incessant labor. Domitian 

1 This would correspond to about $13,500 at the present time. 



Struggle with Heathenism. 183 

then asked them about Christ and the nature of 
His Kingdom. They told him that it was not 
temporal or earthly, but heavenly, and that it would 
appear at the end of the world when Christ would 
come in glory to judge the quick and the dead. 
Upon this Domitian dismissed them as simpletons, 
and, adds Eusebius, " by a decree ordered the 
persecution to cease." Hegesippus, to whom 
Eusebius was indebted for the story, tells us that 
these humble scions of Hebrew royalty continued 
to live even to the time of Trajan. 

Domitian's successor, who is known as Nerva 
"the Good," stopped all persecution, recalled 
those who had been banished, and, partly from 
his own purse, restored the property which had 
been confiscated. 

We come now to the time of Trajan, under 
whose reign took place the first real persecution 
by the state. The chief scene of this persecu- 
tion was Asia Minor, especially the provinces of 
Bithynia and Pontus, of which Pliny, the friend of 
Trajan, was governor. Trajan was a great soldier 
and administrator, and a thorough Roman, who 
took a deep interest in all the affairs of the 
empire, and was more powerfully animated by 
the imperial idea than any of his predecessors 
since Augustus. He often has been designated 
in church histories as " the first who enacted a 
distinct penal statute against the Christians ; " and 
this is affirmed on the basis of his reply to a letter 
from Pliny. On the assumption of his office as 



184 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

governor of Bithynia and Pontus, Pliny found 
that Christianity had become very prevalent in 
his province, so much so that the heathen temples 
were empty, the sacrifices were discontinued, and 
the ancient religion seemed on the point of perish- 
ing from the land. He found also that the multi- 
tudes of Christians had organizations and held 
meetings, which, to him, were in violation of the 
law against secret societies. He heard also the 
pagan charges against the Christians of immorality. 
He promptly instituted proceedings against them, 
but, embarrassed by the enormous number of the 
Christians, who were in all the cities and villages 
and even in rural districts, he was perplexed as to 
the course which he should take, and wrote his 
long-since famous letter to Trajan. Trajan's reply 
was not in the form of an edict, but of a personal 
letter, in which he enjoined Pliny not to seek out 
Christians, and not by any means to listen to 
anonymous accusations; but he reaffirmed the 
principle that Christians were criminals before the 
law, and directed that they, if properly indicted, 
should be tried by regular process of law, and, if 
they refused to sacrifice, they should be punished 
by death. From the Roman point of view Trajan's 
course was moderate and even generous. In Neu- 
mann's opinion it cannot be too strongly em- 
phasized that Pliny's assumption, that the name 
of Christian, if persisted in, deserved the penalty of 
death, was right, — that is, from the point of view 
of Roman law ; yet Ramsay says that " the sup- 



Struggle with Heathenism. 185 

position is excluded that any formal law had been 
enacted to forbid Christianity. We may safely 
infer also that no express edict of any Emperor 
had been issued to suppress Christianity." 

Christians were convicted under the law against 
sodalitates, and under the authority which reposed 
in the governor of preventing Roman citizens 
from neglecting their duties to the state. Under 
this authority " Isis-worship was expelled beyond 
the walls of Rome, the worship of Celtic deities 
was forbidden to Roman citizens by Augustus, 
and Romans who professed the Jewish religion 
were expelled from the city." Trajan's rescript 
did not initiate procedure against Christians. He 
did not for the first time lay down the principle 
that Christians were criminals deserving of death ; 
he simply recognized the existing principle of the 
imperial government, but desired that the principle 
should be applied with discretion and mildness. 
Says Ramsay: " It is one of the most astounding 
facts in modern historical investigation that so 
many modern, and especially German, critics of 
high standing and authority, have reiterated that 
Trajan was the first to make the Name a crime, 
and that any Christian document which refers to 
the Name as a ground for death must be later than 
his rescript." 

Pliny, therefore, vigorously prosecuted Chris- 
tians as obnoxious to the laws of the empire. The 
persecution was aggravated by the fanatical en- 
mity of mobs urged on by pagan priests. Mob 



i86 - From yerusalem to Niccza. 

violence Pliny sought to restrain, and he insisted 
that the processes of law should be rigorously 
followed in the trial of Christians. He made a 
practice of asking the accused if they were Chris- 
tians, and when they confessed that they were, he 
repeated his question, adding the threat of punish- 
ment by death. If they persisted in their Chris- 
tian confession, the law was allowed to take its 
course, and there is no doubt that a large number 
were put to death. His investigations convinced 
Pliny that the Christians were guiltless of the 
horrible crimes with which they had been charged, 
but he was not moved from his position that, as 
Christians merely, they were violators of the law. 
At this time, probably, the custom of holding the 
aya7rr}, or love-feast, was discontinued by the 
Christians, not because there was anything wrong 
in it, but simply because it laid them open to the 
charge of breaking the law against secret societies. 

There appear to have been persecutions in other 
parts of the empire also, though we have no 
detailed and trustworthy records. It is said that 
during Trajan's reign Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem, 
was crucified at the age of a hundred and twenty 
years. During this reign also Ignatius of Antioch 
was thrown to the lions ; it is evident, therefore, 
that there were persecutions in Syria as well as in 
Asia Minor. 

Hadrian, Trajan's successor, took a dilettantish 
interest in Christianity, and was little disposed to 



Struggle with Heathenism. 187 

adopt severe measures against the Christians. 
Persecutions continued to some extent, but they 
were not at all general, nor, apparently, were there 
any others so severe as the one which took place 
under Pliny. The Christian apologists of the time 
urged upon Hadrian the duty of distinctly declar- 
ing that Christianity was not in itself a crime, but 
this he hesitated to do. He did however expressly 
forbid that popular clamor should have weight 
against the Christians, and, in general, maintained 
the principle which had prevailed under Trajan. 
During Hadrian's reign Telesphorus, bishop of 
Rome, is said to have suffered martyrdom. He is 
the first Roman bishop, as far as we know, that 
fell a victim to persecution. An account has been 
preserved of a Christian woman named Sympho- 
rosa, whose husband and brother had suffered 
martyrdom for the faith. She was given the 
choice, for herself and her seven sons, either to 
sacrifice or to die. She replied : " You think 
then to turn me by fear, but I wish only to rest in 
peace with my husband Getulius, whom you have 
put to death for Christ's name's sake." She was 
drowned ; and her seven sons, one after the other, 
were killed in various ways. 

It sometimes has been assumed that there were 
no persecutions worthy of note under Antoninus 
Pius, but evidently there were occasional outbreaks 
of popular antipathy from which many Christians 
suffered. These the mild and gracious emperor 



1 88 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

sought to restrain. He issued rescripts against 
paying attention to mere petitions and popular 
clamor against the Christians. In Greece a severe 
persecution had arisen, in which Publius, the bishop 
of Athens, perished. Antoninus sent rescripts to 
Larissa and Thessalonica, in which he ordered that 
the limits defined in Trajan's rescript should be 
carefully observed. Oh the whole the reign of 
Antoninus was peaceful and happy, and yet we 
cannot forget that it was probably in his reign 
that there broke out in Smyrna the fanatical per- 
secution of which we have such graphic notice in 
the letter of the church in Smyrna to the church 
in Philomelium, and in which the venerable Poly- 
carp suffered martyrdom. It is evident, however, 
that this persecution was popular in its origin and 
in its violence. The cruelties to which Christians 
were subjected are thus described in the letter of 
the Smyrnaeans : — 

" Who could fail to admire their nobleness and patient 
endurance and loyalty to the Master? Seeing that when 
they were so torn by lashes that the mechanism of their 
flesh was visible even as far as the inward veins and arte- 
ries, they endured patiently, so that the very by-standers 
had pity and wept. . . . And in like manner also, those 
that were condemned to the wild beasts endured fearful 
punishments, being made to lie on sharp shells and buf- 
feted with other forms of manifold torture." 

The account of Polycarp's suffering and heroism 
has been given in the preceding lecture. 



Struggle with Heathenism. 189 

Marcus Aurelius, who reigned from 161 to 
180 A. D., although in personal character perhaps 
the best of all the Roman emperors from Augustus 
down, was much the severest and most systematic 
persecutor of the Christians of all the emperors 
who preceded Decius. In him the Greek philoso- 
phy of the Stoic school combined with Roman 
power in opposition to Christianity. A good and 
pure man, whose " Meditations " have long been 
one of the moral handbooks of the world, he did 
not understand, and seems not to have tried to 
understand, the nature of the religion which he 
persecuted. Nor did he understand, or follow, 
the broader and more generous policy of Tra- 
jan and Hadrian. Marcus Aurelius affords the 
student of morals an interesting and somewhat 
perplexing problem. There was much in his char- 
acter and in his thought that was akin to Christian- 
ity, yet he was a firm, and it is not unjust to say 
even a bigoted, opponent of Christianity? It is 
not difficult to find inconsistencies between his 
thought and his action. I cull the following sen- 
tences from his " Meditations : " " For who can 
change men's opinions? and without a change of 
opinions what else is there than the slavery of 
men who groan while they pretend to obey ? " 
" Men were made for men. Correct them, then, 
or endure them." " Correct them, if you can. If 
not, remember that patience was given you to 
practise for their good." " It is against its will 



190 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

that the soul is deprived of virtue. Ever remember 
this ; the thought will make you more gentle to 
all mankind." " What a soul that is which is 
ready, if at any moment it must be separated from 
the body, and ready either to be extinguished or 
dispersed or continue to exist; but so that this 
readiness comes from a man's own judgment, not 
from mere obstinacy, as with the Christians, but 
considerately and with dignity and in a way to 
persuade another, without tragic show." 

In the light of these sentences, consider the 
atrocious persecutions which were carried on at 
Lyons and Vienne in Gaul, apparently under the 
express sanction of the man who wrote them. 
Marcus Aurelius issued new edicts against the 
Christians, which Melito of Sardis declared to be 
unprecedented. Informers were promised rewards 
from the property of the accused. This was a 
distinct bribe to malicious greed, and resulted in 
the conviction and cruel punishment of many who, 
otherwise, would have escaped, and even in the 
conviction of some wealthy people who were inno- 
cent of the charge of being Christians. Athenag- 
oras tells us that Christians in large numbers were 
harassed and fined and plundered and killed. 
The policy of Trajan, which was not to seek out 
Christians, was supplanted by a policy of sys- 
tematic search and prosecution. Christians were 
ordered to worship idols, and, in the event of their 
refusal, were punished. Ramsay contends, with 



Struggle with Heathenism. 191 

some force, that Marcus Aurelius issued no new 
edicts on the persecution of Christians, and that 
there was therefore no formal change of the 
imperial policy ; but he acknowledges that there 
were imperial instructions to provincial gover- 
nors which were susceptible of an interpreta- 
tion that allowed, if it did not distinctly enjoin, 
rigorous persecution of all followers of Christ. 
He says: "The lieutenants had the general instruc- 
tions to seek out and punish sacrilegious persons, 
etc., and Christians were sacrilegious. The lieuten- 
ants might then either carry out the instructions 
logically, or observe the rescripts of Trajan and 
Hadrian, forbidding the hunting out of Christians. 
Under Marcus the logical course was the rule." 

It is probably true that the emperor sometimes 
would have been compelled to yield to popular 
clamor. The time was one marked by great ca- 
lamities, such as earthquake, pestilence, and famine. 
At such times all the superstitious fears of the 
people were revived, and the old charges against 
the Christians of being the cause of these calam- 
ities were renewed. We must not forget that 
Christianity had never been legal, and this fact 
itself constituted a great temptation to those who 
were opposed to the gospel. 

If we have difficulty in understanding how 
Marcus Aurelius, the wise counsellor of modera- 
tion and patience, could have been a persecutor, 
we must remember that Saul the Pharisee, a man 



192 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

quite the peer, if not the superior, of Marcus the 
Stoic, in virtue, was a most bitter persecutor of 
the first Christians. 

During his reign there were addressed to Mar- 
cus Aurelius five Christian apologies, — those of 
Justin, Miltiades, Athenagoras, Apollinaris, and 
Melito. These apologies seem however to have 
made no impression on the emperor. The first 
distinguished martyr of this reign was Justin, who 
perished in Rome probably in 163 A. D., or a little 
later. Having been denounced by Crescens, he 
was brought before the prefect of the city. After 
giving some account of himself and his life, he 
was asked by the prefect, " Art thou, then, a 
Christian? " He replied, "Yes, I am a Christian." 
After some others present had made the same 
confession, the prefect turned to Justin and mock- 
ingly asked, " Listen, thou who art called learned, 
and believest that thou knowest the true doctrines, 
art thou persuaded that when thou shalt have 
been scourged and beheaded, thou wilt then ascend 
into heaven ? " " I hope," replied Justin, " to 
receive Christ's gracious gift, when I shall have 
endured all those things." The conversation con- 
tinued for some little time, when the prefect 
angrily demanded that they should all come for- 
ward and unite in sacrificing to the gods. The 
answer was returned, " No right-minded man will 
leave the worship of God for its opposite." The 
Christians were threatened with the severest pun- 



Struggle with Heathenism. 193 

ishments, but they cheerfully replied : " Do what 
you will, we are Christians, and do not sacrifice to 
idols." The prefect then commanded them to be 
scourged and executed. " Giving praise to God, 
the martyrs went to the place of execution, where, 
after being scourged, they were beheaded with the 
axe." 

The following incident, which must have hap- 
pened shortly before his own death, is related by 
Justin Martyr. The dissolute wife of a dissolute 
man was converted, and became anxious to sepa- 
rate from a husband who persisted in extraordinary 
and unnatural vices. Her friends dissuaded her, and 
her husband held out hopes of amendment, so that 
she forced herself to remain with him. After a 
time, however, he went to Alexandria and plunged 
anew into debauchery. She then took the step, 
sent a writ of divorce, and left him. The husband 
immediately accused her of being a Christian, and 
caused her arrest. While her case was pending, 
he got the same charge preferred against Ptole- 
maus, who had been his wife's instructor in the 
faith. Ptolemaus was imprisoned. On being 
brought before the prefect he was asked, "Are 
you a Christian?" He acknowledged that he 
was, and was at once condemned to death. One 
Lucius, who was present, challenged the prefect to 
justify a decision to punish a man simply for being 
a Christian. The prefect answered, " You too, are 
a Christian, I suppose ?" Lucius admitted that he 

13 



194 From yerusalem to Nic&a. 

was, and was condemned to death, declaring, as he 
went to his fate, that he was glad to be free of 
rulers so unjust, and to depart to the Father and 
King of Heaven. Still a third, in the same per- 
emptory way, was sent to death. 

But the most frightful persecution of which, up to 
this time, we have any record took place at Lyons 
and Vienne in Gaul in 1 77 A. D. An account of this 
is given in a letter from the churches in Gaul to the 
churches in Asia Minor which has been preserved 
by Eusebius. From this letter we learn that the 
persecution began by the exclusion of Christians 
from baths, markets, and public houses. This was 
followed by popular clamors and assaults. Chris- 
tians were beaten, robbed, stoned and imprisoned. 
Then they were led to the Forum and, after being 
interrogated by the tribune, were shut up in prison 
until the arrival of the governor. From him they 
received no mercy. 

One of the Christians, a young man of high 
character named Vettius Epagathus, indignantly 
requested that he might be heard in defence of his 
brethren, and asserted that in the Christians there 
was nothing at variance with religion or piety. 
The governor asked him if he also were a Christian. 
He replied that he was, and he was immediately 
placed among the martyrs. 

A few of the Christians, dreading torture and 
death, apostatized, but the most remained firm. 
Some heathen slaves, under torture, charged the 



Struggle with Heathenism. 195 

Christians with cannibalism and incest. This in- 
creased the fury of the populace. Blandina, a 
young slave girl, who, with her mistress, had been 
arrested, was subjected to torture ; but such was 
her fortitude " that her ingenious tormentors, who 
relieved and succeeded each other from morning 
till night, confessed that they were overcome, and 
had nothing more that they could inflict upon her." 
They were amazed that she still breathed, after her 
whole body was " torn asunder and pierced." She 
was then bound to a stake and exposed to wild 
beasts, but the beasts refused to touch her, and she 
was remanded to prison. Again she was brought 
forth, in company with Ponticus, a youth of fifteen 
years. Every effort was made to compel them to 
recant. Blandina, with extraordinary fortitude, 
exhorted Ponticus to remain firm, which he did to 
his death. Blandina herself, after being scourged, 
exposed to the beasts, and well-nigh roasted, was 
finally thrown into a net and cast before a bull ; 
" and when she had been well tossed by the animal, 
and had now no longer any sense of what was done 
to her, by reason of her firm hope, confidence, faith, 
and her communion with Christ, she too was 
despatched. Even the Gentiles confessed that no 
woman among them had ever endured sufferings as 
many and great as these." Attalus and Alexander 
were given to the wild beasts. 

Sanctus, a deacon, when asked his name and 
nation, answered, " I am a Christian." He was 



196 From Jerusalem to Nice? a. 

tormented by red-hot plates of brass applied to 
the most tender parts of his body, but he re- 
mained unshaken in his faith. His corpse was 
described " as one continued wound." A certain 
Biblias had renounced her faith under torture, but 
in the midst of the torture she repented, and 
denied her previous confession against the Chris- 
tians, exclaiming: " How could such as these 
devour children, who considered it unlawful even 
to taste the blood of irrational animals? " She too 
was added to the number of martyrs. Others were 
confined in dark, filthy holes, with their feet 
stretched wide apart and fastened in stocks. 

Pothinus, the bishop, more than ninety years 
old, was dragged to the tribunal. When asked by 
the governor who was the God of the Christians, 
he said : " If thou art worthy, thou shalt know." 
He was subjected to cruel abuse and thrown into 
prison, where he shortly afterwards died. Many 
of those who renounced their faith were also put 
to death. 

One of the instruments of torture used upon the 
Christians was an iron chair, heated red-hot, in 
which they were roasted alive. The bodies of the 
martyrs were consumed by fire and their ashes 
thrown into the river Rhone, the heathens mock- 
ingly exclaiming, " Now we shall see if they will 
rise again ! " 

To the time of Marcus Aurelius belongs the 
interesting but untrustworthy incident of " the 



Struggle with Heathenism, 197 

thundering legion," which is said to have pro- 
duced an alteration of the emperor's feelings 
towards the Christians ; but, as the incident is re- 
ported to have taken place in the year 174, and, as 
the persecutions in Gaul which we have just been 
considering occurred in the year 177, the alteration 
in the emperor's feelings must have been slight and 
transient. 

Marcus Aurelius died in 180. His death was 
a calamity for the empire, but it was a blessing to 
the Church. His son and successor, the execra- 
ble Commodus, through his very indifference, was 
favorable to the Christians, and there were no 
persecutions by the state during his reign of 
twelve years. There were, however, some irrup- 
tions of popular feeling against the Christians; 
but for about twenty years the Church had peace. 

Septimius Severus, who ruled from 193 to 211, 
was at first favorably inclined to the Christians and 
protected them from assault, but near the middle 
of his reign there was a change. In 202 conversion 
to Christianity was stringently forbidden, and the 
laws against collegia illicita were renewed. After 
that time the persecutions became very severe. 
They raged especially in Egypt and Proconsular 
Africa. In Alexandria, Leonides, the father of 
Origen, suffered martyrdom, and his son, who was 
still a youth, was with difficulty restrained from shar- 
ing his fate. Potamiaena and her mother, Marcella, 
may serve as examples of many Christian women 



198 From yerusalem to Niccea. 

who perished at that time. Potamiaena was beau- 
tiful and of noble birth, and distinguished alike for 
her courage and her chastity. She was subjected 
to frightful tortures, and finally was slowly put to 
death by " having boiling pitch poured over differ- 
ent parts of her body, gradually, by little and little, 
from her feet up to the crown of her head." 
Basilides, one of the officers who led her to exe- 
cution, protected her from the insolence of the 
spectators. The maiden thanked him and said 
that she should pray for him. The result was the 
conversion of Basilides to the Christian faith. Not 
long after, being urged to swear, he refused on 
the ground that he was a Christian. His com- 
panions thought he was jesting, at first, but finding 
that he persevered in his confession, they took 
him to the judge, and he was condemned to prison. 
Some of the Christians went to see him, and asked 
the cause of his sudden change, and he declared 
that Potamiaena, three days after her martyrdom, 
had appeared to him at night, had " placed a crown 
upon his head, and said that she had entreated the 
Lord on his account, and had obtained her prayer, 
and that ere long she would take him with her." 
Basilides was then baptized, and shortly after was 
beheaded. 

In the city of Scillita, in Numidia, a number of 
Christians were brought before the proconsul. In 
repeated interviews the proconsul sought to turn 
them from their allegiance to Christ, but they all 



Struggle with Heathenism. 199 

remained firm in their confession, " We are Chris- 
tians ! " When the proconsul asked if they re- 
fused all mercy and pardon, they answered: "In 
an honorable contest there is no mercy. Do as 
thou wilt. We will die joyfully for Christ our 
Lord." At the place of execution they were be- 
headed while they were kneeling in prayer. 

A little later a number suffered martyrdom in 
Carthage. Among these were two young women, 
named Perpetua and Felicitas, who were only 
catechumens when they were arrested, but re- 
ceived baptism while they were in prison. Per- 
petua had recently become a mother, and she went 
to prison with her baby in her arms. Although 
she was threatened with torture and wild beasts, and 
exhorted by her aged pagan father to recant, she 
remained firm. The two young women, scarcely 
more than girls, were at length put into a net and 
exposed to a wild cow. Such was the coolness 
and fortitude of Perpetua that, when her hair and 
dress w r ere disarranged by the assaults of the furious 
beast, she calmly rearranged them. To the soldier 
who came finally to give the death-blow, she said, 
" Be strong, and think of my faith, and let not 
all this make thee waver, but strengthen thee." 
The two young martyrs, having given each other 
the kiss of peace, were despatched with daggers. 
The young gladiator who was to kill Perpetua was 
so moved that his hand trembled, and the young 
martyr " laid her hand on his and guided it to her 
throat for the death blow." 



200 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

Under Caracalla there were persecutions in many 
places, but they gradually ceased, and from that 
time until about 235 A. D. the churches had rest. 

Maximin, a Thracian, who was raised to the 
throne by the soldiers, in 235, was hostile to the 
Christians. According to Eusebius, he com- 
manded that the presidents only of the Christian 
communities should be put to death, since they 
were esteemed the real causes of the spread of 
the gospel. During his reign popular fury was 
awakened against the Christians in Cappadocia by 
the occurrence of frightful earthquakes, and many 
of them were put to death, or compelled to flee. 
There were persecutions in various parts of the 
empire. In Rome, Pontianus, a bishop, was ban- 
ished to the mines of Sardinia, where he died from 
ill-treatment. Origen escaped death in Cappadocia, 
only by being concealed in the house of the 
Christian virgin Juliana. Protoctetus, a presbyter 
of Caesarea and his friend, Ambrosius, were dragged 
from prison to prison, even as far, apparently, as 
Germany, and, after enduring many sufferings, 
escaped barely with their lives, — the latter being 
robbed of most of his property. 

For ten or twelve years the Christians were, in 
the main, free from attack, but under Decius, from 
249 to 251, the Church suffered more severely than 
at any previous time in its history. Decius was 
the first emperor who systematically conceived 
and thoroughly sought to carry out the entire sup- 



Struggle with Heathenism. 201 

pression of Christianity. He was not wantonly 
cruel, like Nero or Domitian, and, while he was 
quite as conscientious as Marcus Aurelius, he was 
much more consistent and thorough. In 250 he 
issued an edict which required all Christians to 
perform the religious ceremonies of the Roman 
state. Christians were given full opportunity to 
recant, and in case of their failure to do this they 
were dealt with promptly and rigorously, and pre- 
fects were threatened with severe penalties if they 
did not compel the Christians to resume the 
ancestral religion. The storm under Decius seems 
to have been foreboded by both Origen and 
Cyprian. The latter saw in the persecutions a 
divine judgment on the laxity of life into which 
many Christians had fallen. The comparatively 
long time of peace had brought many into the 
Church who had not the moral fibre to endure 
severe trial. The local magistrates, everywhere act- 
ing under the instructions of the emperor, fixed a 
definite term during which Christians might ap- 
pear and sacrifice to the gods. At first, death 
was not inflicted on many except the bishops, who 
were treated rigorously as ringleaders in mischief. 
Christians who left their native land during the 
brief term of probation were not pursued, but 
their property was confiscated, and they were for- 
bidden to return on pain of death. Those who re- 
mained and refused to comply with the edict were 
summoned before a commission of investigation 



202 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

If they refused to recant they were threatened and 
given further time. If they still refused they were 
subjected to torture. If this failed to conquer their 
resolution they were thrust into prison, where 
many died of hunger and hardship. The fortitude 
of the Christians provoked increased severity on 
the part of the emperor, and prefects who were 
disposed to be mild were replaced by others who 
were more strict. 

The first result of the persecution was the more 
or less open apostasy of very many professing 
Christians. Cyprian scornfully complains: " Be- 
fore the battle many were conquered, and, without 
having met the enemy, were cut down ; they did 
not even seek to gain the reputation of having 
sacrificed against their will." Many who did not 
sacrifice purchased from venal officials certificates 
that they had sacrificed. Among those who 
openly recanted and offered sacrifice were some 
who, stricken by remorse for their unfaithfulness, 
lost their reason. " A Christian woman in Car- 
thage, after she had pronounced the word by 
which she renounced Christ, became dumb, and 
could not utter another word. Another went 
directly from the sacrifice to the bath, and when 
she returned had become insane." 

Of the apostates there were three classes : those 
who sacrificed, called sacrificati, those who strewed 
incense on the altars, called tharificati, and those 
who offered neither sacrifice nor incense, but pur- 



Struggle with Heathenism. 203 

chased from government officers certificates of 
having complied with the edict, called libellatici. 
All of these were designated by the Church as 
lapsi % or the lapsed. Those who remained stead- 
fast in their faith and suffered persecution, but 
escaped death, were known as " confessors." The 
way in which the Church should deal with the 
lapsed shortly afterwards constituted a large and 
difficult problem in church discipline. Notwith- 
standing the number of those who through weak- 
ness or insincerity fell from the faith, there were 
great numbers who were not wanting in Christian 
heroism. In Rome the bishop, Fabianus, was put 
to death. He was followed in the episcopate by 
Cornelius, who was banished and then executed. 
Lucius succeeded him, and he, in turn, soon 
received the martyr's crown. These brave men, 
like color-bearers in the thick of the battle, each 
grasped the standard as it fell from the hand of 
his predecessor, resolved that nothing should bring 
it to the ground. The noted virgins Victoria, 
Anatolia, and Agatha, and a great multitude of 
other Christians perished under frightful tortures. 
In Alexandria, while there were many apostates, 
there were also many martyrs. Some of these 
were victims of popular assault before the official 
process of the law could take place. Metras, an 
old man, was commanded to speak blasphemies, 
and, on his refusal, was stoned to death. Quinta, 
a woman, was brought into the temple and com- 



204 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

manded to worship idols, and, when she refused, 
the mob dragged her by the feet through the city. 
Apollonia, a virgin, because she would not blas- 
pheme, had her teeth broken and was then burnt 
at the stake. A boy, Dioscurus, only fifteen years 
old, replied to his persecutors with such aptness 
and showed such courage under torture that, 
finally, the prefect, overcome by admiration for 
the heroic lad, released him. In the Thebaid a 
Christian husband and wife were fixed side by 
side to crosses, in which condition they lived for 
some days, encouraging one another to constancy. 
Alexander, the bishop of Jerusalem, and Babylas, 
the bishop of Antioch, were tortured to death. 
Saturninus, the bishop of Toulouse, was bound to 
a wild bull and dragged to death. In Carthage 
many Christians perished in dungeons, others 
were overcome by torture, and others were exe- 
cuted. Cyprian tells us of a certain Numidicus 
who had encouraged many to endure martyrdom, 
and was himself the victim of the persecutors. 
Cyprian says that Numidicus, " by his exhorta- 
tion sent before himself an abundant number of 
martyrs, slain by stones and by the flames, and be- 
held with joy his wife abiding by his side, burned 
(I should rather say, preserved) together with the 
rest. He himself, half consumed, overwhelmed 
with stones, and left for dead, — when afterwards 
his daughter, with the anxious consideration of 
affection, sought for the corpse of her father,— 



Struggle with Heathenism. 205 

was found half dead, was drawn out and re- 
vived, and remained unconquered from among the 
companions whom he himself had sent before." 
After his recovery he was ordained presbyter by 
Cyprian. 

A characteristic feature of this persecution was 
that the persecutors sought primarily, not the death 
of the Christians, but their apostasy from the 
Christian faith. The result was that torture was 
applied everywhere with unrelenting rigor and 
persistence. This fact accounts for many recanta- 
tions. It is much easier to meet death at once, 
than it is to endure days of excruciating pain. 
The Christians were thrown into prison, loaded 
with chains, and their limbs stretched on the rack ; 
their fingers were crushed, their joints dislocated, 
and their flesh torn with nails and hooks. Some- 
times the victims were exposed to extreme heat, 
and left for days in the torture of thirst. They 
were burnt with charcoal and red-hot irons. Some 
were stripped, smeared with honey, and exposed 
to the sting of insects. Everywhere the Christians 
were insulted, stoned, beaten, robbed of their pos- 
sessions, and, in case they were constant to their 
faith, put to death. 

Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, at the begin- 
ning of the persecution withdrew to a place of 
safety. This he did, not because of cowardice, 
but because he felt that he was necessary to the 
Church, and, from his place of exile, he sent mes- 



2o6 From yerusalem to Niccea. 

sages of consolation and encouragement to the 
Christians, and guided their conduct through the 
severe trial which they were undergoing. 

These days of extraordinary affliction, as a dark 
foil, brought out the resplendent character which 
the religion of Christ had produced among the 
Christians all over the world. The ultimate effect 
of it was to intensify the power of the faith which 
Decius sought in vain to extinguish. On the 
death of Decius, who fell in the war against the 
Goths in 251, there was a momentary lull of 
the storm, but it soon revived. 

Under Gallus official persecution was checked 
by political troubles, but a pestilence which devas- 
tated Proconsular Africa revived the popular fury 
against the Christians. In Carthage the Chris- 
tians, under the guidance of Cyprian, though ex- 
posed to the violence of their persecutors as well 
as to the pestilence, buried the dead, and cared 
for the sick, pagan as well as Christian, and thus 
checked the spread of the plague and appeased 
the pagan rage. 

Valerian, who ascended the throne in 254, was 
at first favorable to the Christians, but, under the 
influence of Macrian, his confidant, his feelings 
changed, and then he sought to carry out the 
principles of his former master, Decius. At first 
he hoped to accomplish his end, in the main, with- 
out bloodshed. He issued an edict exiling the 
clergy, and forbidding the meeting of Christian 



Struggle with Heathenism. 207 

congregations. Prayers at the graves of the mar- 
tyrs were also forbidden. The exiled bishops, 
among whom was Cyprian, became missionaries 
of the faith, and at the same time lost none of 
their influence over their flocks, with whom they 
kept in constant communication. 

In 258 Valerian issued a second edict, com- 
manding that all bishops, presbyters, and deacons 
should at once be put to death ; that all Christian 
senators and magistrates should lose their property, 
and, if they refused to abjure Christ, should be put 
to death ; that all Christian ladies of rank were to 
lose their property and go into exile ; and that 
members of the imperial household who were or 
had ever been Christians were to be sent to work in 
chains on the imperial' estates. This edict was dis- 
tinctly different from all preceding edicts, in that it 
assigned definite statutable penalties to the various 
classes of Christians, whereas, previously, penalties 
had been at the discretion of magistrates ; it also 
was distinctly aimed at the clergy and the higher 
classes of the people. Almost all the martyrs of 
this period were from these classes. Under this 
edict many Christians suffered by scourging and 
by severe labor in the mines, and multitudes were 
put to death. In Rome, the bishop Sixtus was 
arrested while holding divine service in the Cata- 
combs. After being sentenced he was taken back 
and beheaded on the spot where, a little time 
before, he had celebrated the Lord's Supper. His 



208 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

deacon Laurentius met him on his way to death, 
and said : " Whither goest thou, father, without 
thy son ? Whither, priest, without thy deacon ? " 
The bishop replied: " Cease weeping; thou wilt 
soon follow me." Four days afterwards the dea- 
con was roasted to death in an iron chair. 

In Carthage Cyprian, who had withdrawn from 
persecution under Decius, was besought again to 
save himself, on account of his duty to the Church, 
but he refused. When it was known that he was 
arrested, an immense crowd gathered in the prae- 
torium. The hearing is thus summarily reported : 
" Thou art Thascius Cyprianus ? " — "I am." — 
" Thou hast permitted thyself to be made an 
official in a sacrilegious sect ? " — " Yes." — " The 
sacred Emperors have commanded thee to sacri- 
fice." — " That I will not do." — " Consider it 
well." — "Do what is commanded thee; in a 
cause so just no reflection is needed." After a 
brief consultation the sentence was pronounced: 
" Thascius Cyprianus shall be executed with the 
sword." Cyprian answered, " Thanks be to God ! " 
He disrobed himself, knelt down and prayed, and 
the executioner dealt the fatal blow. 

A presbyter in Carthage, named Montanus, 
when he was led to execution tore in two pieces 
the bandage which had been bound over his eyes, 
and asked that one piece might be given to his 
fellow-presbyter, Flavianus. A few days later the 
eyes of Flavianus were bound with this fragment 
of cloth, and he was beheaded. 



Struggle with Heathenism. 209 

Valerian was succeeded in 259 by Gallienus. 
The latter is thus characterized by Mceller: 
" Gallienus, a dilettante in every sort of science 
and art, but a ruler of infirm and weak character, 
afforded rest to the Christians, so that he has been 
designated the first to afford Christianity legal 
toleration. As a matter of fact, he withdrew the 
harsh regulations hitherto in force, and allowed 
the Christians again to obtain possession of their 
houses of assembly and their burial places." 

Aurelian, who succeeded Gallienus in 270, seems 
to have been restrained for a time by the edict of 
his predecessor, but shortly before his death he 
signed an edict for a new persecution, which, how- 
ever, was not carried out. 

For about forty years the Church had rest. 
During this time the question as to how the 
" lapsed " members should be treated engaged 
the attention of the Church, and caused much 
debate. A considerable party was in favor of the 
rigorous exclusion of all who in any way had been 
faithless, but the majority favored milder measures. 
The problem was complicated and made more 
difficult by the action of " confessors." These, 
who had gained enormous prestige by their suffer- 
ings for the gospel, exercised a powerful influence 
upon many Christians, and, presuming on this 
influence, they often gave to the " lapsed " letters, 
or " certificates of peace," on the strength of 
which the lapsed demanded readmission to the 

14 



210 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

Lord's Supper, in some cases even without peni- 
tence or confession. The course which was finally 
settled upon, and in the main pursued, was one in 
which strictness and leniency were combined for 
the correction and restoration of delinquents and 
the gradual establishment of order in the Church. 
During the long respite from persecution the 
Church revived with great energy. The storm 
had purified the air, the power of the gospel had 
received fresh and glorious witness in the faithful- 
ness of the martyrs, and the preaching services of 
the Church, now thrown open to all, were thronged 
with eager hearers. Everywhere the number of 
believers multiplied, and new meeting-houses were 
built and old ones were enlarged. It seemed 
almost as if the very persecution which had been 
designed to extinguish Christianity had accom- 
plished its universal triumph. But another and a 
final struggle was to come. 

In 284 Diocletian, the son of a Dalmatian female 
slave, who had risen to eminence in the army, 
was chosen emperor by the generals. The empire, 
which for many years had been steadily changing 
in character, from this time almost ceased to be 
Roman. The army, which practically ruled the 
empire, was a motley host of Germans, Goths, 
Gauls, Africans, Greeks, and Persians. It is said 
that Probus, on one occasion, admitted sixteen 
thousand Germans in a single day, 

Diocletian established his residence not in Rome 



Struggle with Heathenism. 211 

but in Nicomedia, and there lived in the midst of 
an Oriental court which was characterized by 
Oriental magnificence and ceremonial. He de- 
vised a new scheme of government, in which there 
were to be two Emperors and two Caesars, — the 
latter to succeed the emperors in case of their 
resignation or death. To avoid the danger of 
imbecile rulers, the emperors were to resign at the 
end of twenty years. 

Diocletian^ who had thus abandoned the Roman 
idea of the State, sought to restore, as he conceived 
it, the ancient religion. He was very superstitious 
and was " ever devoted to the sacred customs " of 
heathenism. A struggle between Diocletian and 
Christianity was inevitable. Lactantius relates 
that one day a solemn sacrifice was offered in the 
presence of the emperor in order that he might 
inspect the entrails. Among the officials present 
were a number of Christians, who, according to 
their custom, made the sign of the cross. The 
entrails did not give the hoped for indications. 
The sacrifice was repeated, with the same disap- 
pointing result. Then Tagis, the chief priest, 
exclaimed : " The gods refuse to appear at our 
sacrifice because profane men are present, and 
hinder the revelation by means of the sign which 
the gods hate." The effect of this incident upon 
the mind of Diocletian, it is said, was to determine 
him to persecute the Christians. 

Diocletian had associated with himself Galerius, 



2 12 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

who, by virtue of his military talents, had risen 
from the rank of shepherd to that of Caesar. This 
Galerius was the son of a woman who was a 
devotee of the Phrygian orgies. He had married 
Valeria, the daughter of Diocletian, who, if not a 
confessed Christian, was in sympathy with the 
Christians. Galerius, himself, was a coarse, igno- 
rant, fanatical, and implacable pagan. He urged 
Diocletian to persecute the Christians. This the 
emperor was unwilling to do. His policy for 
nearly twenty years had been one of peace. He 
knew that to persecute would cause great disturb- 
ance in the empire, and would probably be fruit- 
less. He knew, by all the experience of the past, 
that Christians were not afraid to die. He finally 
consented to the issuance of an order that all the 
soldiers in the army should attend the sacrifices. 
The only result of this was the prompt resignation 
of many officers and privates. Then a council of 
leading men was called, and this council, domi- 
nated by the influence of Hierocles, governor of 
Palmyra, who had written a treatise against Chris- 
tianity, recommended persecution. Diocletian, 
still reluctant, finally consulted the oracle of Apollo 
at Miletus. He received only the ambiguous 
answer that the god could not speak the truth 
because of the Christians. At last he yielded, but 
would have no bloodshed. 

Early in 303 a decree was issued for the destruc- 
tion of all the Christian churches and Christian 



Struggle with Heathenism, 21 



3 



scriptures. In addition, all Christian officials of 
the government were to be deposed, Christian 
slaves were to forfeit the possibility of manumission, 
and Christian priests were to be apprehended and 
forced to sacrifice. The edict, which had been 
posted in a public place, was torn down by an 
over-zealous Christian, who was immediately ar- 
rested and roasted to death. Shortly after, a fire 
broke out in the palace, and this was charged by 
Galerius upon the Christians. A second fire broke 
out in the palace, and civil disturbances arose in 
Antioch and Melitene, and Christians were charged 
with causing them. Finally Diocletian resolved 
on decisive measures. Everywhere the clergy 
were thrust into prison, till the prisons were 
crowded with victims. The edict for the destruc- 
tion of the Scriptures created among the Christians 
a new class of the " lapsed; " those who gave up 
copies of the sacred writings were called traditores. 
Some of the Christians, instead of giving up the 
sacred writings, gave up other books, and there 
were officials who were willing to be deceived in 
this way. This effort to exterminate the Scrip- 
tures is probably the main cause of the rarity, in 
later centuries, of very early manuscripts of the 
New Testament and other Christian writings. 

Near the end of the year 303, Diocletian issued 
an edict that the Christian clergy, provided they 
would sacrifice, might be released from prison, but 
if they refused they might be subjected to any 



214 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

kind of torture. The result of this was the apos- 
tasy of many of the clergy and the torture and 
death of many others. In May, 305, Diocletian 
and his co-ruler, Maximian, abdicated. Galerius 
and Constantius were now the emperors. A year 
later Constantius died at York, England, and his 
son, Constantine, supported by his army, assumed 
the purple. About the same time Maxentius was 
elected emperor by the troops and people of 
Rome, and by him Maximian was restored to 
power. It was a time of extraordinary political 
confusion. In 308 there were no less than six 
emperors, of whom Constantine was one. 

In the meantime, persecution against the Chris- 
tians had been vigorously carried on by Galerius. 
He issued an edict that they should be put to 
death with slow fire. Heathen fanaticism intensi- 
fied the horrors of the persecution. Christians 
were hung up by the feet, and fires were kindled 
beneath them. Their noses and ears were cut off, 
their tongues and eyes were torn out, and their 
feet were maimed by cutting through the sinews. 
Melted lead was poured over them, and then their 
bodies were cut in pieces. The corpses were not 
allowed to be buried, but were left the prey of dogs 
and vultures. Christian maidens were scourged 
half naked up and down the street. Many, who 
were exposed to the unbridled lust of the heathen, 
sought death rather than submit to dishonor. 

" At last," says Uhlhorn, " the fire of persecution 



Struggle with 'Heathenism, 215 

burned itself out. The brute force and the raging 
fanaticism which characterized these last outbursts, 
could accomplish nothing against the silent endur- 
ance of the Christians. Heathenism had exhausted 
all its powers. Even the executioners were 
wearied. The heathen themselves began to de- 
nounce the useless effusion of blood, and to take 
the part of the persecuted Christians." 

In 311, Galerius, dying of a loathsome disease, 
the result of his debaucheries, issued an edict 
which put an end to the persecution. This edict 
is a curiosity in historical literature. It denounced 
the Christians as apostates, and claimed that the 
persecutions had been prompted by benevolence, 
and it made a bid for their prayers by promising 
them toleration, and closed with a clause which 
could be used at any time to annul the edict. 

During these years Constantine, who was favor- 
able to Christianity, was steadily winning his way 
to supreme power. His chief struggle was with 
Maxentius, whom he utterly defeated at the Mil- 
vian bridge, near Rome, October 28th, 312. Be- 
fore the battle, it is said, he had seen in the heavens 
the vision of a banner bearing a cross on which was 
the legend 'Ez> tovtco vi/ca, " By this conquer." In 
March of the following year, in conjunction with 
Licinius, Constantine issued the famous " Edict of 
Milan." which established unrestricted liberty in 
religion. In this edict it was laid down as a prin- 
ciple that it is no business of the State to refuse 



216 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

freedom of religion, and that questions of belief 
according to one's own free will must be left to the 
judgment and desire of each individual. " This 
edict," says Plummer, " is the great charter of 
liberty of conscience." 

For ten years bitter persecution had raged 
throughout the empire. All the forces of civil 
government, re-enforced by the violence of fanati- 
cal mobs, had been put forth to exterminate the 
Christian faith. The result of all was the utter 
and final defeat of heathenism. One is filled with 
wonder over the fact that, despite the nature of 
the Christian faith, Christians, being human, did 
so patiently bear all the indignities and cruelties 
put upon them by their enemies. As early as the 
time of Septimius Severus they were so numerous 
as well-nigh to justify the extraordinary claims of 
Tertullian, yet there is no case on record of for- 
cible resistance to persecution ; and in the reign 
of Diocletian, when they had so increased that 
they might have easily accomplished a successful 
revolution, they bore with patience and fortitude, 
every variety of indignity, oppression, torture, and 
death, affording thus the most convincing evidence 
of the divineness of their faith. 

"The conflict with external heathenism was 
over; the struggle with the heathenism in the 
Church was to take its place." The Church had 
conquered, not by force of arms, but by its power 
of enduring all things in the strength of a living 



Struggle with Heathenism. 217 

faith in God. In the space of 280 years the reli- 
gion preached in Judea by a handful of fishermen, 
disciples of a crucified Jew, had, by its own inhe- 
rent energy, overcome the united powers of pagan 
religion, pagan society, pagan government and 
pagan arms, and had grasped the sceptre which 
henceforth it was to wield over all the nations of 
the world. 



THE STRUGGLE WITH HEATHENISM: 
THE APOLOGISTS. 

THE Church in its conflict with heathenism had 
to meet, not only the assaults of persecution, 
but also the more subtle and more dangerous op- 
position of the drift of life. By their very faith 
Christians were committed to a life of purity, in 
the midst of a society in which many forms of vice 
were so thoroughly incorporated that only to the 
Christian did they appear as vice. The traditions, 
the habits, and the associations of the heathen 
were so inimical to Christian life that usually the 
only safety for converts from heathenism lay in a 
complete break with the life which was about 
them, and a steady resistance to its influence. 
That Christians stood fast, and developed a virtue 
which not only was invincible to the assaults of 
heathen vice, but also contributed powerfully to 
the triumph of Christianity, is a conspicuous evi- 
dence of the divine communication and impulse 
that they had received. 

But, in addition to all the social and political 
opposition which it met, the Christian faith had 
to meet also the intellectual attack from both Jews 
and pagans. This attack was the more formidable 



Struggle with Heathenism. 219 

because at the beginning all the weapons of liter- 
ature — of style and dialectic — were in the hands 
of the enemy. In meeting this attack the Church 
produced the apologetic writings of the first three 
centuries. 

From the beginning Christianity had some ex- 
pression in writing, but this was confined, at first, 
to the letters of the apostles, especially of St. Paul. 
Simultaneously with these, or a little later than 
these, arose memoirs of the life and reports of the 
teachings of Christ. Of these the four canonical 
Gospels are the sifted survivors. In our study of 
the Apostolic Fathers we have seen how a certain 
literature grew up, beginning with the epistles 
of Clement and Barnabas ; but the sub-apostolic 
writings, down to the time of Justin Martyr, can 
scarcely be classed as literature. These writings 
were wanting in the point and style that character- 
ized pagan literature. Christianity was not long, 
however, in appropriating to itself the best weap- 
ons in the literary armory. At first uncultivated 
and naTve, the Christians did not attempt to 
enter the field of intellectual combat, but soon 
they gained confidence and began to produce 
writings that, in form at least, were fashioned after 
the pagan models. It is characteristic of Chris- 
tianity, and profoundly interesting, that " in less 
than three centuries from the death of St. John, 
the Church had appropriated every form of 
literature known to paganism, — the apology, the 



220 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

allegory, the dialogue, the romance, the history, 
the essay, the oration, the commentary, the hymn, 
and the didactic poem." 

In this literary development, which did not fairly 
begin until the middle of the second century, 
apologetic literature led the way. It is impossible 
within the limits of present space to consider even 
cursorily the whole Christian literature that was 
produced before the council of Nicaea. Much of 
that literature has perished, but that which remains 
fills some twenty-four stout octavo volumes. It 
will be necessary therefore for us to confine our at- 
tention to the study simply of the apologetic liter- 
ature, and still further, to representative specimens 
of that. 

Many of the early Christian apologies were 
defences, not of Christianity as a system, but of 
Christians. Christians were accused as violators 
of the law, as guilty of evil and immoral practices* 
and as enemies of the human race. To these 
charges there were many replies which vindicated 
the virtue and patriotism and piety of the Chris- 
tians. Soon, however, the apologists passed on 
from the defence of Christians to the exposition 
and vindication of the Christian revelation. They 
began to take the offensive, and to show, not only 
the injustice and inconsistency of the pagan attacks, 
but also the absurdity and immorality of the pagan 
religions, and the superiority to all these of the 
religion of Christ. 



Struggle with Heathenism. 221 

Among the early apologies, therefore, we have 
two classes : {a) those that were in defence of 
Christians; {b) those that were in defence and 
enforcement of Christianity as the true religion. 
These two classes practically include the whole of 
the early apologetic literature. The apologies may 
also be divided into (a) those addressed to Jews, 
and ib) those addressed to pagans. The main 
arguments of the Jews against Christianity were : 
(1) that Jesus, by the humbleness of His circum- 
stances and the ignominiousness of His death, con- 
tradicted the glorious representations of the Messiah 
which are found in the Prophets ; (2) that Jesus, 
by His claim of peculiar kinship to God, violated 
the divine Unity, and was guilty of blasphemy. To 
these attacks Christian apologists replied by the 
more rational and adequate interpretation of the 
Old Testament writings. The arguments of pagan 
writers were more numerous and more various. 
They opposed Christianity because it was " new, 
and therefore untrue," — an argument that is 
familiar to theologians even in our own day. They 
denied the credibility of the Christian miracles, 
especially the chief miracle, namely, the Resur- 
rection of Jesus. A common argument was that 
Christianity was a religion of ignorant fanatics. 
The familiar charges which were urged in order to 
incite or justify persecution appeared over and over 
again in the literary attacks of paganism upon 
Christianity: for example, that Christians were un- 



222 From Jerusalem, to Niccea. 

patriotic and unsocial; that they were atheists; 
that they were sacrilegious; that they practised 
magic ; and that they indulged in secret and un- 
mentionable immoralities. 

These charges were vigorously and successfully 
met by the apologists. It was not until the time of 
Celsus, the latter part of the second century, that 
a literary assault upon Christianity was made of 
sufficient scope and force to merit our attention. 
Lucian indulged in coarse ridicule of Christians, 
especially in his " De Morte Peregrini," but the 
main attack was made by Celsus. The latter, a 
passionate and able opponent of the Christian re- 
ligion, wrote a book which Origen considered of 
sufficient importance to call from him a careful and 
elaborate reply. Celsus' work has perished, but 
the entire substance of its argument has been pre- 
served in Origen's book. 

It is interestfng to observe that there have been 
few arguments urged by sceptics against Chris- 
tianity, during the centuries since the time of 
Origen, that were not stated or suggested by 
Celsus. The consideration of Origen's reply to 
Celsus will come up later. 

The apologists who undertook to defend Chris- 
tianity by expounding and enforcing it as the true 
religion may be divided into two schools. The 
first of these schools recognized a strong affinity 
between Christianity and human reason and con- 
science ; the second saw nothing in human nature 



Struggle with Heathenism. 223 

but utter weakness and wickedness. Of the latter 
school Arnobius may be taken as a representative. 
The first school may be divided into two sections : 
the first section is composed of those who took 
the broad view that in the religions and philoso- 
phies of antiquity there was much truth anticipative 
of Christianity. These are represented by Clement 
of Alexandria. The second section took the nar- 
rower view that, while there is in the unsophisti- 
cated reason a natural appetency for truth, the 
systems of pagan religion and philosophy are to 
be condemned as false, and " the so-called philoso- 
phers were patrons rather of falsehood and heresy 
than of the truth." Of these Tertullian may stand 
as representative. 

Many of the early apologies were addressed to 
the emperors, but they seem to have had little 
favorable effect. It has been asserted that Hadrian 
and Antoninus Pius, and even Marcus Aurelius, 
were influenced by the apologies to such an extent 
as to modify the official treatment of Christians; 
but this is questionable. On the other hand, it is 
not unlikely that Tertullian's apology excited 
Septimius Severus to sterner measures against 
Christianity than he might otherwise have taken. 
Such a scathing and scornful exhibition of pagan 
immorality and injustice and folly must have been 
peculiarly exasperating to Roman officials. But, 
whatever may have been the effect of the Christian 
apologies on the emperors, they certainly had the 



224 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

effect upon the people of stimulating thought, and 
of concentrating attention on the real principles 
and claims of the Christian faith. The truth is, 
however, that the greatest achievements of the 
early Christians were in the field, not of literature, 
but of life. Their most powerful apologetics were 
their virtue, their patient endurance of outrage and 
suffering, and their lofty faith in God. 

It is significant that the apologists who took the 
liberal view of religion and philosophy antecedent 
to Christianity, wrote Greek, while the apologists 
who took the narrower view, with one exception, 
wrote Latin. The latter, with Tertullian in the 
lead, representing, as they did, the Roman type of 
mind in contrast with the Greek, were the pre- 
cursors of that Latin theology which, under the 
powerful influence of Augustine, became dominant 
in the Western church in the fifth century, and, 
joined with an ecclesiasticism which was moulded 
by the Roman spirit and method of organization, 
has ruled it almost to the present time. The former, 
with Clement of Alexandria and Origen as early 
representatives, elaborated that conception of truth 
and of the Christian revelation which is embodied 
in the great theology of the Greek Fathers, and 
which is having a renascence in our day. 

I shall now proceed to give a brief sketch of the 
life and work of some of the early apologists. One 
of the earliest apologetic writings with which we 
are acquainted is the anonymous piece known as 



Struggle with Heathenism. 225 

the " Epistle to Diognetus," which dates probably 
from the first half of the second century, — as early 
as 150 A. D., if not earlier. For a long time this 
epistle was ascribed to Justin Martyr, but evidently 
it was not by him. Lightfoot ventures the con- 
jecture that the author was Pantaenus, the reputed 
founder of the Christian catechetical school in 
Alexandria, which would date the epistle some- 
where between 180 and 210. Even a conjec- 
ture by Lightfoot is worthy of serious attention, 
and there are characteristics of the epistle which 
readily lend themselves to support this conjecture. 
Birks and others ascribe the epistle to a certain 
Ambrose, an Athenian Christian, who, about 177, 
in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, defends himself 
against the charge of fanaticism in a letter to 
Diognetus, a former tutor of the emperor. But 
on the whole the argument for a much earlier date 
seems stronger. 

The epistle begins as follows : — 

"Since I see, most excellent Diognetus, that thou art 
exceedingly anxious to understand the religion of the 
Christians, and that thy inquiries respecting them are dis- 
tinctly and carefully made, as to what God they trust and 
how they worship Him, that they all disregard the world 
and despise death, and take no account of those who are 
regarded as gods by the Greeks, neither observe the 
superstition of the Jews, and as to the nature of the 
affection which they entertain one to another, and of this 
new development or interest, which has entered into 

r 5 



226 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

men's lives now and not before : I gladly welcome this 
zeal in thee, and I ask of God, Who supplieth both the 
speaking and the hearing to us, that it may be granted to 
myself to speak in such a way that thou mayest be made 
better by the hearing, and to thee that thou mayest so 
listen that I the speaker may not be disappointed." 

In the succeeding chapters, or rather paragraphs, 
the author, with great purity and dignity of style, 
sets forth the vanity and worthlessness of idols and 
the folly of worshipping them ; and the defectiveness 
of the Jewish worship and religious customs. Then 
follows a statement of the position, and a represen- 
tation of the character, of Christians, unsurpassed if 
not unequalled in all the early Christian literature. 
This I have quoted at length in the preceding 
lecture. 1 The author then sets forth the revelation 
of the invisible God by His Son, — 

" the very Artificer and Creator of the Universe Himself, 
by Whom He made the heavens, by Whom He enclosed 
the sea in its proper bounds, Whose mysteries all the 
elements faithfully observe, from Whom [the sun] hath re- 
ceived even the measure of the courses of the day to keep 
them, Whom the moon obeys as He bids her shine by 
night, Whom the stars obey as they follow the course of the 
moon, by Whom all things are ordered and bounded and 
placed in subjection, the heavens and the things that are 
in the heavens, the earth and the things that are in the 
earth, the sea and the things that are in the sea, fire, air, 
abyss, the things that are in the heights, the things that 

1 See page 172. 



Struggle with Heathenism. 227 

are in the depths, the things that are between the two. 
Him He sent unto them. Was He sent, think you, as 
any man might suppose, to establish a sovereignty, to in- 
spire fear and terror ? Not so. But in gentleness [and] 
meekness has He sent Him, as a king might send his son 
who is a king. He sent Him, as sending God ; He sent 
Him, as [a man] unto men ; He sent Him, as Saviour, 
as using persuasion, not force : for force is no attribute 
of God. He sent Him, as summoning, not as perse- 
cuting; He sent Him, as loving, not as judging." 

In the succeeding paragraphs the author shows 
that in the Son is revealed the good and benevo- 
lent nature of God; by Him is salvation; and 
through Him man becomes an imitator of God. 
The last two paragraphs of the letter are evidently 
added by another hand. The apologetic value of 
this noble writing lies in its lofty conception and 
impressive presentation of the Christian faith. Says 
Birks: — 

" Lost in the crowd of predecessors whom Irenaeus and 
Clement hardly ever name, and merged in Justin's shadow, 
convinced that God alone can reveal Himself, and content 
to be hidden in his Saviour's righteousness, the old writer 
has gradually emerged by virtue of an inborn lustre, 
obscurest at once and most brilliant of his contemporaries, 
and has cast a glory on the early Church while remaining 
himself unknown." 

Justin the martyr, or, as he is universally called, 
Justin Martyr, as if the word which designates the 
manner of his death were a proper name, has been 



228 From yerusalem to Niccea. 

called " the true founder of Christian apology." 
Almost all that we know of his life is derived from 
his writings, especially from the " Dialogue with 
Trypho." He was born in Flavia Neapolis, a city 
built in honor of Vespasian near the site of the 
ancient Shechem in Samaria. It survives in the 
modern town of Nablous. The date of his birth is 
unknown, but it must have been early in the second 
century, perhaps as early as 114 A. d. Though 
born in Samaria and calling himself a Samaritan, 
Justin was probably a Gentile of Greek extraction. 
His father bore the Roman name, Priscus, and his 
grandfather the Greek name, Bacchius. Appar- 
ently he had inherited some property. He was 
brought up in the heathen customs and received a 
thorough Greek education. As a youth he was 
evidently of serious and ardent mind, and early 
gave himself to the search for truth. In this search 
he betook himself to the philosophers of the various 
current schools. 

He first went to a Stoic, with whom he spent 
considerable time, but, finding that he acquired no 
further knowledge of God, and that his master not 
only had none himself but did not even think such 
knowledge necessary, he left him and went to a 
Peripatetic. The new master soon disgusted his 
pupil by his mercenary spirit, after the first few 
days requesting Justin "to settle the fee in order 
that [their] intercourse might not be unprofitable." 
Justin then sought a very celebrated Pythagorean, 



Struggle with Heathenism. 229 

" a man," he says dryly, " who thought much of his 
own wisdom." This master required of his pupil, 
as a preliminary, a knowledge of music, astronomy, 
and geometry, and finding that the pupil was igno- 
rant of these dismissed him. Then Justin went to 
a Platonist, " a sagacious man, holding a high posi- 
tion among the Platonists." Whether this was in 
Flavia Neapolis or in Ephesus is not certain, but, 
from Justin's language, it is fair to infer that it was 
in the latter place. 

He found his new master much more satisfactory 
than any of his predecessors. " I progressed," he 
says, "and made the greatest improvements daily. 
And the perception of immaterial things quite 
overpowered me, and the contemplation of ideas 
furnished my mind with wings, so that in a little 
while I supposed that I had become wise; and 
such was my stupidity, I expected forthwith to look 
upon God, for this is the end of Plato's philosophy." 
He had not yet, however, attained peace. 

The manner of his conversion to Christianity is 
very interestingly told by himself in his " Dialogue 
with Trypho." One day, while walking in a cer- 
tain field not far from the sea, where he was 
accustomed to go for the sake of quietness, that 
he might meditate without interruption, an old 
man of " meek and venerable manners " followed 
him at a little distance. Justin turned about and 
fixed his eyes keenly upon him ; at which he said : 
" Do you know me ? " 



230 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

" ' I replied/ says Justin, ' in the negative.' ' Why, 
then/ said he to me, ' do you so look at me ? ' 'I am 
astonished/ I said, 'because you have chanced to be in 
my company in the same place ; for I had not expected 
to see any man here.' And he says to me, ' I am con- 
cerned about some of my household. These are gone 
away from me ; and therefore have I come to make per- 
sonal search for them, if, perhaps, they shall make their 
appearance somewhere. But why axe you here? ' said he 
to me. 'I delight/ said I, 'in such walks, where my 
attention is not distracted, for converse with myself is 
uninterrupted ; and such places are most fit for philol- 
ogy ! ' 'Are you, then, a lover of words/ said he, 'but 
no lover of deeds or of truth? and do you not aim at 
being a practical man so much as being a sophist?' " 

Justin answers that " it is necessary for every 
man to philosophize, and to esteem this the 
greatest and most honorable work." The old man 
inquires if, then, philosophy makes happiness. 
Justin answers that it does. When asked further, 
" What is philosophy?" he replies that "it is the 
knowledge of that which really exists, and a clear 
perception of the truth; and happiness is the 
reward of such knowledge and wisdom." The 
old man then questions him about God. In 
the course of the conversation on this theme, with 
a weightiness and intelligence which were new to 
Justin, the old man referred him to teachers older 
than all the philosophers, — " men blessed and 
upright and beloved of God, who spoke by the 



Struggle with Heathenism. 231 

Spirit of God, and are called Prophets." These 
had borne testimony and worked wonders to the 
honor and glory of God the Father, and of His 
Christ. He concluded the conversation with the 
words, " Pray thou, then, that the gates of the 
Light may be opened too for thee; for these 
things can only be seen and known by those to 
whom God and His Christ have given understand- 
ing." The old man then went away and Justin 
saw him no more, but " straightway," he says, " a 
flame was kindled in my soul; and a love of the 
prophets, and of those men who are friends of 
Christ, possessed me ; and whilst revolving his 
words in my mind, I found this philosophy alone 
to be safe and profitable." 

The date of Justin's conversion we can only 
conjecture, but it must have been before the 
revolt under Barcochba, which would put it before 
132 A. D. His conversion was thorough, and he 
thenceforth gave himself wholly to the work of 
diffusing the knowledge of the Christian faith. He 
kept his philosopher's cloak, and went about in 
the manner of the philosophers, teaching the doc- 
trines of Christianity. It is even said that he 
established some sort of a school in Rome, in his 
later years, but of this there is no distinct evidence. 

He was a man with little imagination but with 
considerable force of intelligence, of ardent but 
self-controlled temper and great courage, and of 
simple and noble character. Some one has said 



232 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

of him that " he wrote like a man full of Chris- 
tianity." It is characteristic of the man as well as 
of the time that, in his " Apologies," he defended 
Christians, rather than Christianity ; and, after all, 
this is the true defence, for it is the life rather than 
the theology that is of first importance. 

Of Justin's writings but three of those known to 
be genuine are extant. These are the " Dialogue 
with Trypho " and two " Apologies ; " the second 
of the " Apologies," however, is a sequel, or 
appendix, of the first. Some of Justin's writings 
certainly have been lost, and some well-known 
writings have been wrongly ascribed to him. Of 
writings ascribed to Justin, concerning the authen- 
ticity of which critics are divided, there survive 
"An Address to the Greeks," "A Hortatory Ad- 
dress to the Greeks," " On the Sole Government of 
God," and fragments of a work on the Resurrec- 
tion. These are all early, none of them being later 
than the third century. 

The " Dialogue with Trypho," which defends 
Christianity against Jewish attack, must be passed 
with brief notice. In it Justin explains and justi- 
fies the non-observance of the Mosaic law by 
Christians ; maintains that this law has been abro- 
gated and replaced by the new revelation, which 
was prophetically and germinally in the old ; shows 
that salvation and true righteousness are obtainable 
only through Christ; vindicates the Messiahship 
and divinity of Christ by elaborate proofs drawn 



Struggle with Heathenism. 233 

from the Old Testament; asserts that the fables 
about Bacchus, Hercules and yEsculapius, and the 
mysteries of Mithras, the Persian sun-god, are an 
invention of the devil; and foretells the coming 
restoration of Jerusalem and the thousand years' 
reign of the saints with Christ after the Resurrec- 
tion. Much of this book is taken up with exposi- 
tions of prophecies in the Old Testament about 
Christ, some of which are as fantastic as Justin's 
little imagination will allow. For example, he 
sees in the outstretched hands of Moses, praying 
against Amalek, the prophetic sign of the cross ; 
finds types of Pharisees in the bulls, and of Herod 
in the roaring lion that beset the Psalmist; and 
discovers a figure of the Church in the marriages 
of Jacob. The " Dialogue " has great value as an 
example of early Christian interpretation of the 
Old Testament. It also throws considerable light 
on the belief and practice of Christians at the 
middle of the second century. 

The " Apologies," as we have them, consist of 
two, the first, written probably about 150, ad- 
dressed to Antoninus Pius and his associates in 
the empire, and the second, written several years 
later, addressed to the Roman Senate. The first 
" Apology " may be divided into three parts. The 
first part begins with a demand for justice to the 
Christians, refutes the charges against them, and 
vindicates their innocence. The second part sets 
forth the truth of Christianity and shows how it 



234 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

came to be misunderstood through the influence 
of demons. In Justin's writings, as in many other 
early Christian writings, the demons and the pagan 
deities are identical. The third part, which is very 
brief, describes the worship and customs of the 
Christians, and ends with a copy of Hadrian's 
epistle on behalf of the Christians addressed to 
Minucius Fundanus. In the course of this apology 
Justin vigorously attacks the heathen worship and 
customs, expounds the prophecies concerning 
Christ's coming and work and death, and sets 
forth the majesty of Christ. He charges the 
demons, not only with misleading men concerning 
the true nature of Christianity, but also with caus- 
ing the persecution of Christians. He claims that 
Plato was under obligation to Moses for his doc- 
trine of the creation, and also that Plato propheti- 
cally intimated the doctrine of the cross. He 
apparently identifies baptism with regeneration, 
describes the Eucharist as a participation in the 
Body and Blood of Christ, and justifies the observ- 
ance of Sunday for worship and ministry to the 
needy. " Sunday," he says, " is the day on which 
we all hold our common assembly, because it is 
the first day, on which God, having wrought a 
change in the darkness and matter, made the 
world ; and Jesus Christ, our Saviour, on the same 
day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on 
the day before that of Saturn (Saturday) ; and on 
the day after that of Saturn, which is the day 



Struggle with Heathenism. 235 

of the Sun, having appeared to his apostles and 
disciples, He taught them these things, which we 
have submitted to you also for your consideration." 
In the second " Apology," addressed to the 
Roman Senate, Justin recounts the persecution of 
Christians by Urbicus, prefect of Rome, and shows 
his injustice by citing specific cases. He accuses 
Crescens, a Cynic philosopher, of ignorant preju- 
dice against the Christians. He vindicates Divine 
Providence and asserts the certainty of judgment 
against sinners. In chapter x. he claims whatever 
truth was uttered by law-givers or philosophers 
before Christ as belonging to the Word, and cites 
Socrates with approval, as one who " was accused 
of the very same crimes as ourselves. For they 
said that he was introducing new divinities, and 
did not consider those to be gods whom the State 
recognized ; " and he thus contrasts Socrates with 
Christ: — 

" For no one trusted in Socrates so as to die for his 
doctrine, but in Christ, who was partially known even by 
Socrates (for He was and is the Word who is in every 
man, and who foretold the things that were to come to 
pass both through the prophets and in His own person 
when he was made of like passions, and taught these 
things), not only philosophers and scholars believed, but 
also artisans and people entirely uneducated, despising 
both glory and fear of death ; since He is a power of 
the ineffable Father, and not the mere instrument of 
human reason." 



236 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

He confesses that while he was still a Platonist, 
and heard the Christians slandered, he was con- 
vinced of their sincerity by their patience and for- 
titude under suffering, and their fearlessness of 
death. Perhaps the most significant passage in 
this " Apology " is that in which Justin sets forth 
his doctrine of the " spermatic word." He says: 

" I confess that I both boast myself, and with all my 
strength strive to be found, a Christian ; not because the 
teachings of Plato are different from those of Christ, but 
because they are not in all respects similar, as neither are 
those of the others, Stoics, and poets, and historians. 
For each man spoke well in proportion to the share he 
had of the spermatic word, seeing what was related to it. 
But they who contradict themselves on the more impor- 
tant points appear not to have possessed the heavenly 
wisdom, and the knowledge which cannot be spoken 
against. Whatever things were rightly said among all 
men are the property of us Christians. For next to God, 
we worship and love the Word who is from the Unbe- 
gotten and Ineffable God, since also He became man for 
our sakes, that, becoming a partaker of our sufferings, he 
might also bring us healing. For all the writers were 
able to see realities darkly through the sowing of the 
implanted Word that was in them. For the seed and 
imitation imparted according to capacity is one thing, 
and quite another is the thing itself, of which there is 
the participation and imitation according to the grace 
which is from Him." 

Justin prays that his little book may be pub- 
lished in order that men " may have a fair chance 



Struggle with Heathenism. 237 

of being freed from erroneous notions," and so be 
inclined to justice toward the Christians; de- 
nounces the wicked and deceitful doctrine of 
Simon the Samaritan ; and closes with the prayer 
" that all men everywhere may be counted worthy 
of the truth. And would that you also, in a man- 
ner becoming piety and philosophy, would for 
your own sakes judge justly ! " He suffered mar- 
tyrdom, probably in 163 under Marcus Aurelius, 
sentence being pronounced and executed in the 
same day. 

One of the most striking and picturesque figures 
among the early apologists is that of Tatian, who 
was a contemporary and disciple, and probably 
a convert, of Justin Martyr. He was born in 
Assyria, possibly of Greek parentage, between 
no and 120 A. D. Apparently he was of good 
birth and possessed of some fortune. He received 
a thorough Greek education, diligently cultivated 
his mind, and developed literary powers of a high 
order, for, though in his " Address to the Greeks " 
he scorns the elegancies of style, he yet shows his 
exceptional capacity for literary expression. Like 
Justin he had an ardent desire for the truth. 
Urged by this desire he visited many lands, studied 
all the religions with which he came in contact, 
and even learned the sacred mysteries in Greece. 
In his " Address to the Greeks" he says: "The 
things which I have thus set before you I have not 



238 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

learned at second hand. I have visited many- 
lands ; I have followed rhetoric, like yourselves ; 
I have fallen in with many arts and inventions ; 
and finally, when sojourning in the city of the 
Romans, I inspected the multiplicity of statues 
brought thither by you." 

About 150 he went to Rome. By this time he 
had become thoroughly disgusted with the debas- 
ing immoralities of the heathen religions; " having 
everywhere," as he says, " examined the religious 
rites performed by the effeminate and the pathic, 
and having found among the Romans their Latia- 
rian Jupiter delighting in human gore and the 
blood of slaughtered men, and Artemis not far 
from the great city, sanctioning acts of the same 
kind, and one demon here and another there, 
instigating to the perpetration of evil." In Rome, 
Justin drew his attention to " certain barbaric 
writings, too old to be compared with the opinions 
of the Greeks, and too divine to be compared with 
their errors." These " barbaric writings " were 
the Old Testament Scriptures. The simplicity 
and modesty of the style of these Scriptures, as 
well as the loftiness of their doctrine, drew him by 
an irresistible charm. He sought instruction in 
the Christian faith, and became a member of the 
church in Rome. Here he lived for some years, 
working in harmony with Justin, vigorously de- 
fending the faith, and assailing the licentiousness 
and folly of the pagan religions. He also in- 



Struggle with Heathenism, 239 

structed converts, among whom were one Rho- 
don, of whose writings Eusebius has preserved 
some fragments, and, possibly, also Clement of 
Alexandria, since Clement speaks of having had a 
teacher who " was born in the land of Assyria." 

After the death of Justin Martyr, Tatian seems 
to have imbibed Gnostic ideas, and, about 172, he 
was excommunicated as a heretic. He then re- 
turned to the East, where he lived some years near 
Antioch in Syria, and died about 180 at Edessa. 
In these last years he was at the head of the 
Encratites, an ascetical sect of Gnostics. Their 
name means the " Self-controlled." Tatian was 
the author of many works, of which only two sur- 
vive, but the titles of four others are well known. 
The two that have survived are his " Address to 
the Greeks " and his " Diatessaron." 

Among the Gnostic ideas of Tatian are these: 
with Valentinus he believed in certain ^Eons, or 
emanations from the supreme Deity, of which the 
Logos or Word was chief; with Marcion he be- 
lieved that the God of the Old Testament was the 
Demiurge, and was inferior to the God of the New 
Testament; he affirmed the non-salvability of 
Adam; condemned marriage ; and inculcated ab- 
stinence from animal food and from wine. He 
modified the celebration of the Lord's Supper by 
the use of water instead of wine. 

His " Address to the Greeks " was written about 
152 A. D. This work is more polemical than apolo- 



240 From J erusalem to Niccea. 

getic, and, in so far as it is apologetic, it is a 
defence of Christianity rather than of Christians. 
Tatian, though he was widely instructed in the 
pagan philosophies and religions, has no sympathy 
with them, sees no good in them, and finds not 
analogies but contrasts between them and Chris- 
tianity. The tone of his " Address " is defiant 
and aggressive. The style is abrupt and passion- 
ate, and wilfully devoid of elegance ; yet it is often 
very powerful. He is a master of scornful invec- 
tive. He begins his " Address " by attacking 
the self-conceit of the Greeks, showing that they 
are indebted for their various arts and sciences 
to others whom they contemptuously call " Bar- 
barians." 

" For which of your institutions," he asks, " has not 
been derived from the Barbarians? The most eminent 
of the Telmessians invented the art of divining by dreams ; 
the Carians, that of prognosticating by the stars ; the 
Phrygians and the most ancient Isaurians, augury by the 
flight of birds ; the Cyprians, the art of inspecting victims. 
To the Babylonians you owe astronomy ; to the Persians," 
magic ; to the Egyptians, geometry ; to the Phoenicians, 
instruction by alphabetic writing. . Cease, then, to miscall 
these imitations inventions of your own. Orpheus, again, 
taught you poetry and song ; from him, too, you learned 
the mysteries. The Tuscans taught you the plastic art ; 
from the annals of the Egyptians you learned to write his- 
tory ; you acquired the art of playing the flute from 
Marsyas and Olympus, — these two rustic Phrygians 



Struggle with Heathenism. 241 

constructed the harmony of the shepherd's pipe. The 
Tyrrhenians invented the trumpet ; the Cyclops, the 
smith's art ; and a woman who was formerly a queen of 
the Persians, as Hellanicus tells us, the method of joining 
together epistolary tablets : her name was Atossa. Where- 
fore lay aside this conceit." 

He derides them for their inability accurately to 
pronounce their own language, and scoffs at the 
venality of their rhetoricians. He thus ridicules 
the philosophers : — 

" Diogenes, who made such a parade of his indepen- 
dence with his tub, . . . lost his life by gluttony. Aris- 
tippus, walking about in a purple robe, led a profligate 
life, in accordance with his professed opinions. Plato, a 
philosopher, was sold by Dionysius for his gormandizing 
propensities. And Aristotle, who absurdly placed a limit 
to Providence and made happiness to consist in the 
things which give pleasure, quite contrary to his duty as 
a preceptor, flattered Alexander, forgetful that he was but 
a youth ; and he, showing how well he had learned the 
lessons of his master, because his friend would not wor- 
ship him, shut him up and carried him about like a bear 
or a leopard. . . . Let such men philosophize for me ! ' : 

He powerfully vindicates the Christian worship 
of God alone. 

" Man," he says, " is to be honored as a fellow-man ; 
God alone is to be feared, — He who is not visible to 
human eyes, nor comes within compass of human art. 
Only when I am commanded to deny Him, will I not 
obey, but will rather die than show myself false and 

16 



242 From yerusalem to Niccza. 

ungrateful. ... I refuse to adore that workmanship 
which He has made for our sakes. The sun and moon 
were made for us : how, then, can I adore my own ser- 
vants ? How can I speak of stocks and stones as gods ? " 

He declares that the creation of the world was 
by the Logos, who springs forth from God by His 
simple will: who "came into being by participa- 
tion, not by abscission." He maintains the Chris- 
tian doctrine of the resurrection, and exclaims: 
" Even though fire destroy all traces of my flesh, 
the world receives the vaporized matter; and 
though dispersed through rivers and seas, or torn 
in pieces by wild beasts, I am laid up in the store- 
houses of a wealthy Lord." He ascribes the fall 
of man to the influence of angels who, turning 
away from God, became demons; but he does not 
relieve man of responsibility for the fall, because 
he was free to choose the good. With the fallen 
angels, who have become demons by their separa- 
tion from the Creator, or Logos, he identifies the 
pagan gods, and, with fierce scorn, he recounts 
their vices and follies among mankind. These 
demons are the cause of superstitions, but the sins 
of men are due not to Fate but to free-will. Of 
the first man he predicates two kinds of spirits, 
" One of which is called the soul (^%^), but the 
other is greater than the soul, an image and like- 
ness of God." By sin the latter is lost, and with 
it is lost immortality. 



Struggle with Heathenism. 243 

" The soul," says Tatian, " is not in itself immortal, O 
Greeks, but mortal. Yet it is possible for it not to die. 
If, indeed, it knows not the truth, it dies, and is dissolved 
with the body, but rises again at last at the end of the 
world with the body, receiving death by punishment in 
immortality. But again, if it acquires the knowledge of 
God, it dies not, although for a time it be dissolved." 

He declares the necessity of union with the 
Holy Spirit as the ground of immortality. In 
several succeeding chapters he shows the decep- 
tions which demons practise on mankind, and 
denounces against them a punishment severer than 
that which will be visited on men ; but, true to 
his doctrine of free-will, he maintains that deprav- 
ity lies at the bottom of demon-worship. He ridi- 
cules the solemnities of the Greeks and denounces 
their popular amusements, both in the arena and 
on the stage; and scornfully depicts the "boastings 
and quarrels of their philosophers, and derides the 
futility of their studies. "While inquiring what 
God is, you are ignorant of what is in yourselves ; 
and, while staring all agape at the sky, you 
stumble into pitfalls. The reading of your books 
is like walking through a labyrinth, and their 
readers resemble the cask of the Danaids." 

He protests that the Christians are hated un- 
justly, and condemns the Greek legislation. In 
the closing chapters he shows that the Christian 
philosophy is much older than the Greek, and 
exhibits the superiority of the Christian doctrine. 



244 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

He nobly vindicates the character of Christian 
women, as contrasted with the frivolous and licen- 
tious Greek women. He cites the testimony of 
the Chaldeans, the Phoenicians and the Egyptians, 
to prove the superior antiquity of Moses, and gives 
a list of the Argive kings, who are all shown to 
be comparatively recent, while Moses is both more 
ancient and more credible than the heathen heroes. 
The " Address " concludes with the words : — 

"These things, O Greeks, I, Tatian, a disciple of the 
barbaric philosophy, have composed for you. I was born 
in the land of the Assyrians, having been first instructed 
in your doctrines, and afterwards in those which I now 
undertake to proclaim. Henceforward, knowing who 
God is and what is His work, I present myself to you 
prepared for an examination concerning my doctrines, 
while I adhere immovably to that mode of life which is 
according to God." 

The " Diatessaron," while not strictly an apolo- 
getic work, is of such significance and interest 
that I must devote to it a few words. From 
Eusebius and others it was known that Tatian had 
composed a harmony of the Gospels, and that this 
harmony was almost universally used in the Syrian 
churches for two centuries or more after his time. 
For many centuries the "Diatessaron" was lost 
from view, save as it survived, in a fragmentary 
shape, in a commentary upon it by Ephraem 
Syrus. In 1719 Stephen Assemani claimed that 



Struggle with Heathenism. 245 

a certain Arabic manuscript in the Vatican was a 
copy of Tatian's " Diatessaron." This seems not 
to have received the attention which it merited. 
In 1 88 1, the German scholar, Zahn, published 
the " Diatessaron," reconstructed from quotations 
found in the Syrian Fathers, using chiefly the 
" Commentary " of Ephraem Syrus. Incited by 
this work, an Italian scholar, Agostino Ciasca, 
examined the Vatican manuscript and wrote an 
essay upon it in 1883, in which he announced his 
purpose to publish the manuscript itself. Three 
years later, Ciasca came into possession of another 
manuscript, which was sent from Egypt to the 
Borgian museum in Rome by its owner, Halim 
Dos Gall. This manuscript proved to be a more 
complete copy of Tatian's work, translated from 
Syriac into Arabic early in the eleventh century ; 
the present copy having been made not later than 
the fourteenth century. This manuscript, care- 
fully edited, has recently been translated into 
English. 1 

The " Diatessaron " is a composite of the four 
canonical Gospels. It was made by Tatian prob- 
ably before 160 A. D. Its value is very great 
because of the convincing proof which it furnishes 
that our four Gospels were in existence, and were 
recognized as authoritative in the Church, as early 
at least, as 140 A. D., since these Gospels are evi- 
dently identical with the "Memoirs" to which 
1 It is published by T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. 



246 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

reference is made by Justin Martyr. The " Dia- 
tessaron," therefore, puts forever at rest the con- 
tention that the Fourth Gospel was produced late 
in the second, or early in the third, century. It 
also disproves the theory of the late invention of 
the miracles ascribed to Christ in the four Gospels. 
The works of Tatian have doubtless suffered in 
the estimation of ecclesiastical writers because of 
the ban of heresy which was put upon him on 
account of his Gnostic tendencies. Irenaeus, who 
wrote " Against Heresies," bitterly, but probably 
not altogether justly, denounces Tatian. Tatian's 
work on the Gospels, in its importance to the 
Christian scholarship of our time, is outranked by 
no other single work of the second century. 

A little later in his apologetic work than either 
Justin Martyr or Tatian, was ATHENAGORAS. Of 
the life of Athenagoras almost nothing is clearly 
known, and his name is seldom mentioned in early 
ecclesiastical history. He seems to have been 
an Athenian philosopher, who was converted to 
Christianity by reading the Sacred Scriptures for 
the purpose of refuting them. A writer of the 
fifth century says that he was the first head of the 
Christian school in Alexandria, and it has been 
conjectured, on the ground of certain internal evi- 
dence, that his book, " Concerning the Resurrec- 
tion," was written in Alexandria. In 177 he 
addressed to Marcus Aurelius and his son Corn- 
modus an " Embassy" on behalf of the Christians. 



Struggle with Heathenism. 247 

Of the other works which he wrote only one has 
come down to us, the treatise on the resurrection 
of the dead. 

Athenagoras was certainly a man of wide culture 
and of much acuteness and strength of mind, and 
he was possessed of fine literary art. His " Apol- 
ogy," or " Embassy," is elegantly written, abounds 
in quotations from the pagan poets and philos- 
ophers, as well as from the sacred Scriptures, and 
is characterized by great tact and logical force. 
Within the field which it covers it is probably the 
strongest, as well as the most interesting, Christian 
apologetic writing of the second century. In his 
desire to conciliate, the author indulges in some 
pardonable flattery of the emperors. In the first 
chapter he protests against the unjust discrimina- 
tion against the Christians, in that they are con- 
demned simply on account of their name. 

"Why," he asks, "is a mere name odious to you? 
Names are not deserving of hatred : it is the unjust act 
that calls for penalty and punishment. . . . We venture, 
therefore, to lay a statement of our case before you — 
and you will learn from this discourse that we suffer un- 
justly, and contrary to all law and reason — and we be- 
seech you to bestow some consideration upon us also, 
that we may cease at length to be slaughtered at the 
instigation of false accusers. For the fine imposed by 
our persecutors does not aim merely at our property, nor 
their insults at our reputation, nor the damage they do us 
at any other of our greater interests. These we hold in 



248 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

contempt, though to the generality they appear matters of 
great importance ; for we have learned, not only not to 
return blow for blow, nor to go to law with those who 
plunder and rob us, but to those who smite us on one 
side of the face to offer the other side also, and to those 
who take away our coat to give likewise our cloak. But, 
when we have surrendered our property, they plot against 
our very bodies and souls, pouring upon us wholesale 
charges of crimes of which we are guiltless even in 
thought." 

In the second chapter he vigorously, and yet 
with much tact, urges the just claim of Christians 
to be treated as others are when accused. " If, 
indeed," he says, " any one can convict us of a 
crime, be it small or great, we do not ask to be 
excused from punishment, but are prepared to 
undergo the sharpest and most merciless inflic- 
tions." He demands, what is conceded as the 
common right of all, that Christians shall not be 
hated and punished merely because they are 
called Christians, but be fairly tried and if guilty, 
convicted and punished, and acquitted if innocent. 
The three charges which he meets are the familiar 
ones of atheism, cannibalism, and incest. 

The larger part of the " Apology " (chapters iv. 
— xxx.) is taken up with an elaborate refuta- 
tion of the charge of atheism. He defends the 
Christian belief in the unity of God, and cites in 
corroboration the poets and the philosophers ; he 
shows also the superiority of the Christian doc- 
trine, and points out the absurdities of polytheism. 



Struggle with Heathenism. 249 

The charge of atheism is refuted by the character 
of the Christians' life. He justifies the Christians 
for not offering sacrifices, and exhibits the incon- 
sistency of their accusers, since the latter " do not 
all acknowledge the same gods." 

In two fine chapters he sets forth the distinction 
between God and matter, and the reasons why 
Christians do not worship the universe : — 

" Beautiful without doubt is the world. . . . yet it is 
not this, but its Artificer, that we must worship. For 
when any of your subjects come to you, they do not 
neglect to pay their homage to you, their rulers and 
lords, from whom they will obtain whatever they need, 
and address themselves to the magnificence of your pal- 
ace. ... If, therefore, the world is an instrument in 
tune, and moving in well-measured time, I adore the 
Being who gave its harmony, and strikes its notes, and 
sings the accordant strain, and not the instrument. For 
at the musical contests the adjudicators do not pass by 
the lute-players and crown the lutes." 

He then cites the testimony of the poets and 
philosophers to prove that the pagan gods have 
been created and therefore are perishable. " How 
can the constitution of these gods remain," he 
asks, " who are not self-existent, but have been 
originated? " 

He reminds his readers of the absurd represen- 
tations which have been made of the gods, and, 
by copious references to the poets, exhibits the 



250 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

impure loves of these deities. He then criticises 
the theory that these are only symbolical rep- 
resentations, and cites Thales and Plato in defence 
of his idea that the effects ascribed to the gods are 
produced by demons. The latter he identifies 
with the giants begotten by an unholy union 
between fallen angels and the daughters of men. 
The demons allure men to the worship of images, 
and practise various devices upon them. The hea- 
then gods, he affirms, are simply men, and proves 
his affirmation from the poets. 

In the last seven chapters he confutes the other 
charges against the Christians, setting forth in 
opposition to these charges their pure morals 
and humane temper. " For our account," he 
says, " lies not with human laws, which a bad man 
can evade, . . . but we have a law which makes 
the measure of rectitude to consist in dealing with 
our neighbor as ourselves." 

The Apology closes with the temperate and 
altogether admirable appeal : — 

" And now do you, who are entirely in everything, by 
nature and by education, upright, and moderate, and 
benevolent, and worthy of your rule, now that I have 
disposed of the several accusations, and proved that we 
are pious, and gentle, and temperate in spirit, bend your 
royal head in approval. For who are more deserving to 
obtain the things they ask than those who, like us, pray 
for your government, that you may, as is most equitable, 
receive the kingdom, son from father, and that your 



Struggle with Heathenism. 251 

empire may receive increase and addition, all men 
becoming subject to your sway? And this is also for 
our advantage, that we may lead a peaceable and quiet 
life, and may ourselves readily perform all that is com- 
manded us." 

There is a trace of ascetism in this writing, 
which appears especially in the author's treatment 
of second marriages. On this matter he says: 
"For he who deprives himself of his first wife, 
even though she be dead, is a cloaked adulterer, 
resisting the hand of God, because in the begin- 
ning God made one man and one woman." His 
idea of inspiration appears in the following sen- 
tences : "It would be irrational for us to cease to 
believe in the Spirit from God, who moved the 
mouths of the prophets like musical instruments, 
and to give heed to mere human opinions." 
Moses and Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the other 
prophets, were "lifted in ecstasy above the natural 
operations of their minds by the impulses of the 
Divine Spirit, [and] uttered the things with which 
they were inspired, the Spirit making use of them 
as a flute- player breathes into a flute." 

In his idea of the Logos Athenagoras antici- 
pates Origen's doctrine of the eternal generation 
of the Son. " He [the Son] is the first product 
of the Father, not as having been brought into 
existence, [for] from the beginning, God who is 
the eternal mind [1/0O?], had the Logos in Himself, 
being from eternity instinct with Logos [\oyifcos]." 



252 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

" The Holy Spirit " he asserts " to be an effluence 
of God, flowing from Him, and returning back 
again like a beam of the sun." 

The limits of present space make it necessary 
for me to leave the consideration of Irenaeus until 
the next lecture, where he more properly belongs, 
since his writings which have come down to us are 
chiefly against heresies. Clement of Alexandria 
and Origen will be considered in the lecture on 
the Christian school of Alexandria. Of the other 
apologists belonging to the first three centuries, 
Quadratus survives in a single fragment; the 
works of Aristides are wholly lost; and the writ- 
ings of Melito of Sardis exist in only a few frag- 
ments, an apology in Syriac ascribed to him 
probably not being by his hand. The apology 
by Theophilus, " To Autolycus," which was writ- 
ten a little after the middle of the second century, 
and is a work showing profound acquaintance with 
the sacred Scriptures and ably exhibiting their 
superiority to the heathen writings, must be 
passed by, as also must Methodius, and the 
learned and powerful Hippolytus. 

Of the Latin apologists, Tertullian, Minucius 
Felix, Arnobius, and Lactantius, whom I have 
named in their chronological order, I can pre- 
sent briefly only one, Tertullian. Minucius Felix 
wrote his " Octavius " a little after 200 A. D. Of 
this work the late Dean Milman said, " Perhaps no 
late work, either Pagan or Christian, reminds us of 



Struggle with Heathenism, 253 

the golden days of Latin prose so much as the 
1 Octavius ' of Minucius Felix." The work of 
Lactantius belongs to the early years of the fourth 
century, and is characterized by great dignity, 
elegance, and clearness of style, and by varied and 
extensive erudition ; it was justly much esteemed 
by the Fathers of the Church. 

Tertullian, whose full name was Quintus Flo- 
rens Tertullianus, was born in Carthage, of heathen 
parentage, in the year 160, or a little earlier. His 
father was a centurion in the service of the pro- 
consul, with sufficient means to give his boy a lib- 
eral education. Carthage was at that time one of 
the main seats of learning in the Roman empire. 
Tertullian, a lad of brilliant promise, made rapid 
progress in his studies. He mastered Greek so 
that he could both speak and write it with ease. 

He knew his Homer and other poets, and was 
widely read in philosophy, science, and history. 
For the latter studies he evidently cared more 
than he did for poetry. Like most heathens of 
his time, he spent his youth in dissipation, a 
course of life which was almost inevitable to one 
of his station, in a city abounding in vices, espe- 
cially sensuality of the fiercer types. His descrip- 
tions, in later life, of scenes in the theatre and 
arena and other resorts of pleasure, were evi- 
dently drawn from personal observation and ex- 
perience. Yet, despite the wildness of his early 
years, he read much and developed to a high de- 



254 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

gree his powers both of reasoning and expression. 
A born orator, his very endowments led him to 
embrace the profession of a pleader, or advocate. 
It is possible that he was destined for official life 
in the State. He seems to have practised as a 
jurist in Rome sometime during the reign of Corn- 
modus (180-192), and is the reputed author of 
two legal works. His legal training is apparent 
in his writings, not only in his general style, which 
is juridical rather than homiletic, but also in his 
skill in argument and his frequent use of legal 
terms. In his apologies he is the trained and 
passionate advocate and defender, rather than the 
calm and critical apologist. 

Between 190 and 195, probably in 192, he be- 
came a convert to Christianity. He at once threw 
himself ardently into the study of the Bible and 
Christian literature, and very soon began to use his 
pen in defence of Christians and the Christian faith. 
He appears to have written somewhat in Greek, 
but most of his work was in Latin. His Greek 
writings are entirely lost. He was made a presbyter 
in Carthage, where his life mainly was spent. That 
he was married we know from letters addressed to 
his wife which appear among his published works. 

In 202 or 203 he espoused Montanism. Mon- 
tanus, of whom I shall have more to say later, 
was a Phrygian Christian who was a believer in 
the immediate and continuous inspiration of all 
Christians, a Puritan in morals, who disparaged 



Struggle with Heathenism. 255 

wedlock and exalted celibacy, emphasized the im- 
portance of fasting, and took the severest views 
of Christians who, in violation of their baptis- 
mal vows, fell into sin. Tertullian continued to 
write with vigor and boldness in defence of the 
Christian faith and to denounce persecution ; 
but in 207 he broke entirely with the Catholic 
Church- and became the head of the Montanist 
party in Africa, as Tatian had become the head 
of the Encratites in Syria. This party of Mon- 
tanists, known as " Tertullianists," continued in ex- 
istence down to the fifth century. Tertullian was 
led to adopt Montanist principles by the laxity of 
the clergy in Carthage, but also by the tendency of 
his temperament to a stricter life. In 207 he wrote 
an elaborate polemic against Marcion, the Gnostic. 
His writings as a Montanist are full of attacks upon 
the laxity of Catholics. The date of his death is 
unknown. Jerome says that he lived to "■ a de- 
crepit age ; " he died probably in 240. 

Tertullian was the first of the Latin Fathers, and 
the greatest, previous to Augustine. He was the 
creator of Latin Christian literature, fashioning out 
of the rude Punic Latin a powerful, if not always 
elegant, vehicle for his thought. His writings 
show his wide and varied knowledge and interests. 
They are a treasury of facts illustrative both of the 
heathen life of his time and of the doctrines and 
worship of the Church. Of his Montanist writings, 
Bishop Kaye says, that they " are among the most 



256 From yerusalem to Niece a. 

valuable, simply because, in his unsparing attacks 
on what he held to be faulty in the practices and 
discipline of the Church, he unconsciously pre- 
serves for our information what these were." 

His literary activity extended from 197, or a 
little earlier, to 223. His writings are of greater 
extent than the extant writings of any other ante- 
Nicene writer, with the exception of Origen, fill- 
ing four large octavo volumes. They have been 
divided into (ri) Apologetic, (F) Dogmatic and 
Polemical, and (V) Moral and Ascetic. In tem- 
perament he was impetuous, vehement, eloquent, 
and fearless. Says Moeller, " His was a fiery na- 
ture, rich in fantasy, witty and passionate and 
inclined to paradox, at the same time endowed 
with a certain amount of Oriental (Punic) warmth 
and sensuousness, but also with a good share of 
Roman sense of what is solid and effective." He 
bears a certain resemblance to Tatian. Both of 
these men recoiled violently from the immoralities 
and obscenities of pagan religions, both tended 
strongly toward ascetism, both had the courage 
of their convictions, and both were entirely con- 
secrated to their faith. Tertullian's apologies, like 
Tatian's, are polemic and aggressive, abounding 
in trenchant and often scornful invective. Tatian 
has been called "The Assyrian Tertullian." Alto- 
gether, Tertullian was a genuine, though some- 
what hot-headed, and sometimes wrong-headed, 
man, whose very faults add a certain attractiveness 
to his personality. 



Struggle with Heathenism. 257 

His writings have been described as alike " rich 
in thought and destitute of form, passionate and 
hair-splitting, eloquent and pithy in expression, 
energetic and condensed to the point of obscurity." 
Says Harnack : — 

" His style has been characterized with justice as dark 
and resplendent like ebony. His eloquence was of the 
vehement order ; but it wins hearers and readers by the 
strength of its passion, the energy of its truth, the preg- 
nancy and elegance of its expression, just as much as it 
repels them by its heat without light, its sophistical argu- 
mentations, and its elaborate hair-splittings. Though he 
is wanting in moderation and luminous warmth, his tones 
are by no means always harsh ; and as an author he ever 
aspired with longing after humility and love and patience, 
though his whole life was lived in the atmosphere of con- 
flict. Tertullian, both as a man and as a writer had much 
in common with the apostle Paul." 

As a specimen of Tertullian's vehement spirit 
and style, I quote a part of chapter xxx. of his 
work entitled " De Spectaculis," written in denun- 
ciation of the popular exhibitions in the circus : 

"What a spectacle is that fast-approaching advent of 
our Lord, now owned by all, now highly exalted, now a 
triumphant One ! What that exultation of the angelic 
hosts ! what the glory of the rising saints ! what the king- 
dom of the just thereafter ! what the city New Jerusalem ! 
Yes, and there are other sights : that last day of judg- 
ment, with its everlasting issues ; that day unlooked for 

17 



258 From Jerusalem, to Niece a. 

by the nations, the theme of their derision, when the 
world, hoary with age, and all its many products shall 
be consumed in one great flame ! How vast a spectacle 
then bursts upon the eye ! What there excites my admi- 
ration? what my derision? Which sight gives me joy? 
which rouses me to exultation? — as I see so many illus- 
trious monarchs, whose reception into the heavens, was 
publicly announced, groaning now in the lowest darkness 
with great Jove himself, and those, too, who bore witness 
of their exaltation ; governors of provinces, too, who 
persecuted the Christian name, in fires more fierce than 
those with which in the days of their pride they raged 
against the followers of Christ ! What world's wise men 
besides, the very philosophers, in fact, who taught their 
followers that God had no concern in aught that is sublu- 
nary, and were wont to assure them that either they had 
no souls, or that they would never return to the bodies 
which at death they had left, now covered with shame 
before the poor deluded ones, as one fire consumes them ! 
Poets also, trembling not before the judgment-seat of 
Rhadamanthus or Minos, but of the unexpected Christ ! 
I shall have a better opportunity then of hearing the 
tragedians, louder-voiced in their own calamity ; of view- 
ing the play-actors, much more ' dissolute ' in the dissolv- 
ing flame ; of looking upon the charioteer, all glowing in 
his chariot of fire ; of witnessing wrestlers, not in their 
gymnasia, but tossing in the fiery billows ; unless even 
then I shall not care to attend to such ministers of sin, 
in my eager wish rather to fix a gaze insatiable on those 
whose fury vented itself against the Lord. ' This,' I shall 
say, 'this is that carpenter's or harlot's son, that Sabbath- 
breaker, that Samaritan and devil-possessed ! This is 



Struggle with Heathenism. 259 

He whom you purchased from Judas ! This is He whom 
you struck with reed and fist, whom you contemptuously 
spat upon, to whom you gave gall and vinegar to drink ! 
This is He whom His disciples secretly stole away, that 
it might be said He had risen again, or the gardener 
abstracted, that his lettuces might come to no harm from 
the crowds of visitants ! ' What quaestor or priest in his 
munificence will bestow on you the favor of seeing and 
exulting in such things as these ? and yet even now we 
in a measure have them by faith in the picturings of 
imagination." 

It is interesting to know that he who wrote these 
appalling sentences could also write the following 
description of patience : — 

" Her face is tranquil and serene, her forehead pure, 
and unfurrowed by one line of sadness or anger ; her 
eyebrows are slightly raised in token of joy : she droops 
her eyes, not in sorrow but in humility ; a dignified silence 
seals her lips, the hue of her countenance is that of inno- 
cence and security. She defies the devil, and he trembles 
at her smile. White is the robe which falls across her 
breast and enwraps her form ; it neither heaves nor throbs 
tumultously. She is seated on the throne of a mind full 
of quietness and peace, which is ruffled by no storm, shad- 
owed by no cloud, which is like the calm and open 
heaven of blue, which Elias saw in his third vision." 

And could utter these words on penitence : — 

"Penitence is our life, for it is the great antidote of 
death. O sinner, such a one as I am, or rather less 
guilty than I, who am myself the chief of sinners, embrace 



260 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

repentance, cling to it as the shipwrecked man clings to 
the plank which saves him. It will raise thee above those 
floods of sin which engulf thee, and will bring thee into 
the port of Divine mercy." 

Tertullian wrote his apologies in a time of 
fierce and violent persecutions, in which all the 
old charges were revived against the Christians. 
These persecutions were often caused by popular 
hate or fanaticism, but in Africa they seem as the 
rule, to have been directed, or at least abetted, by 
the Roman officials. " From the 'Ad Martyres' 
to the ' Ad Scapulam,' from the first to the last of 
those impassioned and pathetic utterances which 
appeal, not for mercy but for justice, not for for- 
giveness for latent vice, but for praise for open 
virtue, not for pardon for mistaken treason, but 
for recognition of the truest patriotism, not for 
the condonation of ' atheism ' but for salutation of 
a God-given faith, — the tale is told of dire suffering 
divinely borne, of martyrs and confessors who had 
taken up the Cross and were faithful unto death." 

In 197-198 Tertullian wrote five apologetic 
works: "To the Martyrs," "Apology," "On the 
Testimony of the Soul," " To the Nations," and 
"Against the Jews." Of these I can notice briefly 
only three. 

" To the Martyrs," probably his earliest Christian 
writing, was addressed to Christians in prison in the 
year 197. It begins with an allusion to the care 
taken by the Church for their material needs: — 



Struggle with Heathenism. 261 

" Blessed Martyrs Designate, — Along with the pro- 
vision which our lady mother the Church from her bounti- 
ful breasts, and each brother out of his private means, 
makes for your bodily wants in the prison, accept also 
from me some contribution to your spiritual sustenance. 
For it is not good that the flesh be feasted and the spirit 
starve." 

He exhorts them to steadfastness in concord, 
amidst the temptations which come to them in 
their very trial : — 

" Give not [the wicked one] the success in his own 
kingdom \_i. e., the prison] of setting you at variance with 
each other, but let him find you armed and fortified with 
concord ; for peace among you is battle with him." The 
world is more a prison than the confinement into which 
they have gone. "If we reflect," he says, "that the 
world is more really the prison, we shall see that you have 
gone out of a prison rather than into one. The world has 
the greater darkness, blinding men's hearts. The world 
imposes the more grievous fetters, binding men's very 
souls." 

He shows that the spirit may gain more in a 
prison than the flesh loses. "You have no oc- 
casion," he reminds them, " to look on strange 
gods, you do not run against their images ; you 
have no part in heathen holidays, even by mere 
bodily mingling in them ; you are not annoyed by 
the foul fumes of idolatrous solemnities ; you are 
not pained by the noise of the public shows, nor 



262 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

by the atrocity or madness or immodesty of their 
celebrants." " Let us drop the name of prison," 
he continues; " let us call it a place of retirement. 
Though the body is shut in, though the flesh is 
confined, all things are open to the spirit. In 
spirit, then, roam abroad ; in spirit walk about, not 
setting before you shady paths or colonnades, but 
the way which leads to God. As often as in spirit 
your footsteps are there, so often you will not be in 
bonds. The leg does not feel the chain when the 
mind is in the heavens." He recalls to their minds 
the discipline by which soldiers inure themselves 
for the toils and perils of the campaign, and ex- 
claims : " In like manner, O blessed, count what- 
ever is hard in this lot of yours as a discipline of 
your powers of mind and body." So also, he re- 
minds them, athletes are severely trained. Then he 
encourages the Christian prisoners to endurance by 
examples of pagan self-sacrifice and fortitude, telling 
them that if they fear to suffer they will be con- 
founded by those who out of vanity have sought 
pain and death. 

The " Apology " was written a little later, prob- 
ably in the latter part of 198. Fresh and violent 
persecution had broken out against the Christians. 
The " Apology," " the greatest of Tertullian's 
works," was a passionate and powerfully reasoned 
demand for bare justice. It begins by boldly de- 
nouncing the Gentile hatred of the Christians as 
outrageously unjust. Tertullian is in no depre- 
catory mood. 



Struggle with Heathenism. 263 

" We enter not upon defence in the popular way,'* he 
exclaims, " by begging your favor, and moving your com- 
passion, because we know the state of our religion too well 
to wonder at our usage. The truth we profess, we know 
to be a stranger upon earth, and she expects not friends 
in a strange land ; but she came from heaven, and her 
abode is there, and there are all our hopes, all our friends, 
and all our preferments. . . . What can the laws suffer in 
their authority by admitting [this heavenly stranger] to a full 
hearing? Will not their power rise in glory for the justice 
of the hearing? But if you condemn her unheard, besides 
the odium of flaming injustice, you will deservedly incur 
the suspicion of being conscious of something that makes 
you so unwilling to hear, — what, when heard, you cannot 
condemn." 1 

That the persecutors are ignorant of Christianity 
is no excuse, but rather an aggravation of their 
injustice. Tertullian arraigns the judges both for 
malice and perverseness. He argues that human 
laws may err, and therefore may be amended, and 
cites well-known cases of revision. The laws 
against Christians being manifestly unjust, if these 
laws are found not to be according to the standard 
of justice, they are deservedly condemned ; and, " if 
they punish for a mere name, they are not only to 
be exploded for their iniquity, but to be hissed off 
the world for their folly." 

1 The translation of " The Apology " used here is that of Rev. 
William Reeve, M. A , who was rector of Cranford, Middlesex, 
England, 1694-1726. The English of this translation is slightly 
archaic, but it is racy, and, in the main, true to the sense of the 
original. 



264 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

The emperors who have persecuted the Chris- 
tians, he claims, were the worst men ; like Nero, who 
" could hate nothing exceedingly but what was 
exceedingly good," and like Domitian, " a limb of 
this bloody Nero ; " while the best emperors, like 
Marcus Aurelius, have protected the Christians. 
This passage would indicate Tertullian's belief that 
the persecutions which took place in Gaul and in 
other parts of the empire, during the reign of 
Marcus Aurelius, were not executed by the com- 
mand, or with the consent, of the emperor, but 
were the result solely of popular enmity. The 
facts, however, indicate that this belief was not well- 
founded. Against those who urged on persecution 
of the Christians because Christianity was a novelty, 
and who were " such mighty sticklers for the 
observation of old laws," he contends that they had 
themselves introduced many novelties. He cites 
certain sumptuary laws, for example, those — 

M which allowed not above a noble (100 asses, a little more 
than 100 cents of our money, but, allowing for the differ- 
ence in value between that time and the present, perhaps 
about $10) for an entertainment, and but one hen, and 
that not a crammed one, for a supper ; . . . which ex- 
cluded a senator from the senate-house, as a man of 
ambitious designs, for having but ten pound weight of 
silver plate in his family ; which levelled the rising 
theatres to the ground immediately, as seminaries only of 
lewdness and immorality." 

These laws they had themselves egregiously vio- 



Struggle with Heathenism. 265 

lated. Some expended 100 sestertia (about $4,000, 
or, allowing for the difference in value, about 
$40,000) for a single meal ; others had " mines of 
silver melted into dishes " for the tables of freed- 
men. Theatres abound. The women are given up 
to luxury and wantonness. In all this the perse- 
cutors are themselves guilty, both of violating the 
laws, and of abandoning their ancestral religion. 
How absurd, therefore, is their charge against the 
Christians of introducing novelties. Tertullian shows 
that the common rumor against the Christians is 
absolutely lacking the support of any evidence. 
The crimes charged against them are not only im- 
probable, but even impossible ; on the contrary, he 
proves " that the heathens are guilty both in the 
dark, and in the face of the sun, of acting the same 
abominations they charge upon Christians, and 
their own guiltiness, perhaps, is the very thing 
which disposes them to believe the like of others ; " 
and that the heathen are notoriously guilty of 
offering evil sacrifices, of destroying infants, and 
of committing unnatural crimes. He reminds them 
that one way they had of discovering Christians 
was, requiring them to eat blood-pudding, which 
they would invariably refuse, because by their very 
principles it was forbidden them to taste blood. 
" If now, therefore," he exclaims, " you would turn 
your eyes inward, and see the guilt in yourselves, 
you would see innocence in us, for contraries are 
best seen together." 



266 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

He maintains that the gods of the Gentiles are 
no gods, for they are but men, and he ridicules the 
worship of images. He charges the heathen with 
irreverence to their own gods, and with mocking 
them by offering the vilest parts of the sacrifices 
and by representing them on the stage, in comedies 
and tragedies, by lewd and infamous persons. In 
strong contrast he sets forth the Christian idea of 
God, and the involuntary tribute to Him which is 
often rendered by the heathen themselves, in their 
very exclamations : — 

" 'The great God," the good God,' 'the God which is the 
giver of all good things/ are forms of speech in every one's 
mouth upon special occasions. This God is appealed to 
as the Judge of the world, by saying, ' God sees everything,' 
and ' I recommend myself to God,' and ' God will recom- 
pense me.' Oh ! what are all these sayings but the writ- 
ings of God upon the heart, but the testimonies of the 
soul thus far by nature Christian? " 

Tertullian then relates the story of the translation 
of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in the Sep- 
tuagint, under Ptolemy Philadelphus, and launches 
into an argument on the antiquity of those 
Scriptures, proving their divine authority by the 
fulfilment of the prophecies. From this point he 
proceeds to explain how it is that Christians worship 
the God of the Jews, and yet are antagonized by 
the Jews, while they are charged with worshipping 
a man. Christ, whom they worship, is the Logos, 



Struggle with Heathenism. 267 

who, issuing from the spiritual substance of God, 
is "both God and the Son of God, and those two 
are one." He gives a brief account of the birth 
and miracles and death and resurrection of Christ, 
and vindicates His true divinity. 

" We say we are Christians, and say it to the whole 
world, under the hands of the executioner, and in the 
midst of all the tortures you exercise us with to unsay it. 
Torn and mangled and covered over in our own blood, 
we cry out as loud as we are able to cry that we are 
worshippers of God through Christ. Believe this Christ 
if you please, to be a man, but let me tell you He is the 
only man by whom and in whom God will be known and 
worshipped to advantage." 

Having thus given an account of the origin and 
nature of the Christian religion, he devotes consid- 
erable space to a discussion of the power and 
methods of demons, whom he pronounces a degen- 
erate race, springing " from a corrupted stock of 
angels." These are bent upon the ruin of man- 
kind, and, in fulfilment of their malign purpose, 
they cause diseases, disasters, blight, and contagion ; 
they blast the minds of men, stir up outrageous 
lusts, entice the soul to the worship of false gods, 
and take delight in the fumes of blood and the 
stench of burning flesh in the sacrifices. Their 
residence is in the air, and they have such swiftness 
that they are practically ubiquitous ; yet they are 
subject to the command of Christians. He boldly 



268 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

challenges a test : " Let a demoniac therefore be 
brought into court, and the spirit which possesses 
him be commanded by any Christian to declare 
what he is, he shall confess himself as truly to be a 
devil as he did falsely before profess himself a god." 
It is undeniable, therefore, he maintains, that the 
deities of the pagans are no deities. On the con- 
fession of evil spirits under the adjuration of Chris- 
tians, he denounces the Romans as themselves 
proved guilty of irreligion. The Roman grandeur, 
he declares, is not due to the Roman religion, for 
God alone is the dispenser of kingdoms. He 
charges upon the Romans that they venerate their 
emperors more than they do the gods, and shows 
that, so far from the gods protecting the emperors, 
it is the emperors who maintain the gods. The 
Christians, even while suffering persecution, are 
ever mindful to pray for the life and prosperity of 
the emperors, and their prayers are of more avail 
than any sacrifice. 

"Thus, then, while we are stretching forth our hands to 
our God, let your tormenting irons harrow our flesh ; let 
your gibbets exalt us, or your fires lick up our bodies, or 
your swords cut off our heads, or your beasts tread us to 
earth. For a Christian upon his knees to his God is in a 
posture of defence against all the evils you can crowd 
upon him. 

" Consider this, O you impartial judges, and go on with 
your justice, and while our soul is pouring out herself to 
God in the behalf of the emperor, do you be letting out 
her blood." 



Struggle with Heathenism, 269 

Christians pray for the emperors, not that their 
prayers may be looked upon as " spices of flattery," 
but because they are commanded to love their 
enemies, and because, by maintaining thus the 
prosperity of the empire, they retard " the con- 
flagration of the universe which is now at hand, 
and is likely to flame out in the conclusion of 
this century." 

He defends the loyalty of Christians in refusing 
to call the emperor God, and commends Augustus, 
the founder of the empire, for rejecting the title 
Dominus, or Lord. " Nevertheless," he adds, " I 
should not scruple to call the emperor lord ; but 
then it must be when I am not compelled to do it 
in a sense peculiarly appropriated to God ; for I 
am Caesar's free-born subject, and we have but one 
Lord, the Almighty and Eternal God, who is his 
Lord as well as mine." 

He contrasts the sober conduct of the Chris- 
tians, on the occasion of the public festivals, with 
the " dissolute joy " of the heathen, and demands 
kinder treatment for "the Christian sect, . . . 
because it is a sect from whom nothing hostile 
ever comes, like the dreadful issue of other unlaw- 
ful factions." He then describes at length the 
organization, worship, charities, and pure life of 
the Christians. 

" We Christians," he says, " are a corporation or soci- 
ety of men most strictly united by the same religion, by 
the same rites of worship, and animated with one and the 



270 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

same hope. When we come to the public service of God, 
we come in as formidable a body, as if we were to storm 
heaven by force of prayer, and such a force is a most grate- 
ful violence to God. . . . We meet together likewise for 
the reading of Holy Scriptures, and we take such lessons 
out of them as we judge suit best with the condition of 
the times, to confirm our faith either by forewarning us 
what we are to expect, or by bringing to our minds the 
predictions already fulfilled. . . . However, besides the 
bare reading, we continually preach and press the duties 
of the gospel with all the power and argument of which 
we are capable ; for it is in these assemblies that we 
exhort, reprove, and pass the divine censure or sentence 
of excommunication. . . . The presidents or bishops 
among us are men of the most venerable age and piety, 
raised to this honor, not by the powers of money, but the 
brightness of their lives ; for nothing sacred is to be had 
for money. That kind of treasury we have is not filled 
with any dishonorable sum, as the price of a purchased 
religion ; every one puts a little to the public stock, com- 
monly once a month, or when he pleases, and only upon 
condition that he is both willing and able ; for there is no 
compulsion upon any. All here is a free-will offering, 
and all these collections are deposited in a common bank 
for charitable uses, not for the support of merry meetings, 
for drinking and gormandizing, but for feeding the poor 
and burying the dead, providing for girls and boys who 
have neither parents nor provisions left to support them, 
for relieving old people worn out in the service of the 
saints, or those who have suffered by shipwreck, or are 
condemned to the mines, or islands, or prisons, only for 
the faith of Christ ; these may be said to live upon their 



Struggle with Heathenism, 271 

profession, for while they suffer for professing the name 
of Christ they are fed with the collections of His 
Church." 

He then takes up the charge that Christians are 
the cause of public calamities, and shows that it is 
malicious and baseless as well as absurd ; and 
points out the true cause in the impiety of their 
accusers. In answer to an indictment that they 
are a " good-for-nothing, useless sort of people," 
he proves the contrary, for among them are found 
no idlers or malefactors of any kind. The reason 
for their innocence is their law, which is more per- 
fect and has stronger sanctions than the civil law. 

" We who know we must account to a God who sees 
the secrets of all hearts, we who have a prospect of that 
eternal punishment He has in store for the transgressors 
of His laws, — we, I say, may well be looked upon, under 
so much revelation, to be the only men who always take 
innocence in their way." 

Having thus replied in detail to every charge 
against the Christians, Tertullian turns his attention 
to the philosophers, and demonstrates that they 
have less right to toleration than the Christians; 
for : f, as is said, " philosophers prescribe and pro- 
fess the same doctrine as Christians, namely, inno- 
cence, justice, patience, temperance, and chastity/' 
then Christians should be " equalled to those, in 
points of privilege and impunity, to whom [they] 
are compared in points of discipline." But many 



272 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

of the philosophers are guilty of impiety to the 
gods, and of disrespect to the emperors ; many of 
them affect truth only in appearance, and con- 
fessedly are guilty of various vices. Moreover, 
the poets and philosophers have stolen from the 
Sacred Scriptures whatever they could pervert to 
their own purposes: " All the arrows that are shot 
at truth are taken from her own quiver, for the 
heresies are to look with a gospel face in emula- 
tion of divine truth, and the spirits of error have a 
great stroke in the picture." 

In the next chapter he argues for the literal 
resurrection of the body : — 

" The graves then shall repay the bodies at the day of 
judgment, because it is not conceivable perhaps how a 
mere soul should be passible without a union with matter, 
I mean the flesh ; but especially because the divine jus- 
tice will have souls suffer in the bodies in which they have 
sinned. . . . The worshippers of God shall be clothed 
upon with a substance proper for everlasting duration, 
and fixed in a perpetual union with God ; but the profane 
and the hypocrite shall be doomed to a lake of ever- 
flowing fire, and fueled with incorruptibility from the 
divine indefectible nature of that flame which torments 
them." 

The apology closes with the characteristic claim 
of victory for the Christians ; their triumph is only 
assured and hastened by persecution : — 

" To set up truth is our victory, a«d the victor's glory 
is to please his God, and the precious spoil of that victory 



Struggle with Heathenism. 273 

is eternal life ; and this life we certainly win by dying for 
it; therefore we conquer when we are killed, and being 
killed are out of reach of you and all other vexations for- 
ever. . . . And now, O worshipful judges, go on with 
your show of justice, and, believe me, you will be juster 
and juster still in the opinion of the people, the oftener 
you make them a sacrifice of Christians. Crucify, torture, 
condemn, grind us all to powder if you can ; your injus- 
tice is an illustrious proof of our innocence, and for the 
proof of this it is that God permits us to suffer. . . . But 
do your worst, and rack your inventions for tortures for 
Christians — it is all to no purpose ; you do but attract 
the world, and make it fall the more in love with our 
religion ; the more you mow us down, the thicker we 
rise ; the Christian blood you spill is like the seed you 
sow, it springs from the earth again, and fructifies the 
more." 

Tertullian's idea of martyrdom, which soon be- 
came, if it had not already become, the preva- 
lent idea in the African church, is apparent from 
these words : " Who ever looked well into our 
religion but came over to it? And who ever came 
over, but was ready to sufTer for it, to purchase the 
favor of God, and obtain the pardon of all his sins, 
though at the price of his blood? for martyrdom 
is sure of mercy." 

In his book, " Concerning the Testimony of the 
Soul," Tertullian thus interrogates the soul: 
"Stand forth, O soul, . . . and give thy witness; " 
and he finds it, not Christian indeed, since " man 
becomes a Christian, he is not born one," but, in 

18 



274 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

its natural and unsophisticated state, an involun- 
tary witness to the fundamental truths of the 
Christian religion : the being of God, — " to whom 
the name of God alone belongs, from whom all 
things come, and who is Lord of the whole uni- 
verse ; " the existence and wickedness of the 
demons; and the judgment after death. But, in 
this involuntary testimony, the soul corroborates 
the Sacred Scriptures; it is therefore self-con- 
demned. 

He concludes: — 

" Most justly, then, every soul is a culprit as well as a 
witness : in the measure that it testifies for truth, the 
guilt of error lies on it ; and on the day of judgment it 
will stand before the courts of God, without a word to 
say. Thou proclaimedest God, O soul, but thou didst 
not seek to know Him ; evil spirits were detested by thee, 
and yet they were the objects of thy adoration ; the pun- 
ishments of hell were foreseen by thee, but no care was 
taken to avoid them ; thou hadst a savor of Christianity, 
and withal wert the persecutor of Christians." 

This sketch of the Church's answer to the intel- 
lectual attack of heathenism is too brief to be ade- 
quate or even just; but perhaps it is sufficient to 
show the nature of that answer ; its full scope can 
be seen only in the great work of Origen against 
Celsus. 

During the past century, Christian apologetics 
has developed into a science which makes the 
apologetic work of the first three hundred years, 



Struggle with Heathenism. 275 

with the exception of that of Clement and Origen, 
seem slight in comparison ; yet the early work 
was characterized by dignity, purity of moral tone, 
and often by much acuteness and strength of 
argument. 

But then, as now, the great defence of Chris- 
tianity was the character and life which the spirit 
and teaching of Christ naturally and inevitably 
produce; and these constitute also its chief appeal 
to the reason and conscience of men. Against 
this defence no argument can prevail ; to this 
appeal the sincere heart must sooner or later yield 
a welcome. 



THE STRUGGLE WITHIN THE CHURCH: 
HERESIES. ' 

THE struggle of the Church with both the mate- 
rial and the intellectual forces of heathenism 
was accompanied by a struggle within itself against 
ideas which, finding lodgment in its bosom, threat- 
ened not only the integrity, but the very existence, 
of its faith. This was the struggle with heresies. 
In the strictly historical sense it is improper to 
speak of heresies before the formal utterances of 
the great Councils, at least before the Council of 
Nicsea. In the early Church within the sphere 
of interpretation of Scripture and inference from 
its teachings, there was great freedom, and there 
were many variations in belief. There was no au- 
thoritative standard of orthodoxy, save that which 
was afforded by the New Testament. Heresy, 
therefore, as applied to beliefs in that early time, 
has a different signification from that which it ac- 
quired later. The term designates tendencies and 
types of thought that were destructive or perver- 
sive of the fundamental Christian facts and truths. 
The Fathers used the word "heresy" to designate 
ideas, whether Jewish or pagan, that " impinged 
upon and imperilled the true faith in Jesus 
Christ." 



Struggle within the Church. 277 

Half-unconsciously, but with an unconquerable 
instinct for the simple realities of the gospel, the 
Church began its fight, both with the survivals of 
late Judaism, and with the speculative tendencies 
of heathenism that subtly intruded themselves into 
the Church by allying themselves with Christianity, 
adopting its phrases, and claiming its authority. 
This subtle intrusion was especially characteris- 
tic of that multifarious form of thought termed 
Gnosticism. The Church rested on a basis of 
facts; Gnosticism, on pure speculation. An early 
outcome of the struggle was, substantially, the 
" Apostles' Creed." 

This ancient symbol, which, in its present form, 
belongs to the end of the fourth or the beginning 
of the fifth century, is really earlier than the 
Nicene Creed ; for all the articles of the former 
were in existence long before the conflict between 
Arius and Athanasius resulted in the formation of 
the Nicene symbol. The Apostles' Creed had its 
origin, probably, in the primitive baptismal con- 
fession. As a whole, it is eminent as being pecul- 
iarly a confession of facts rather than of principles. 
This old factual creed is a witness of the historical 
basis of Christianity, as opposed to a mythological 
or speculative basis. In it the Church affirmed, 
with clear simplicity, its faith in God, the Father 
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in 
Christ, the Son of Mary and Son of God, who 
truly was horn, lived, taught, suffered, died and 
was buried, and rose aeain. 



278 From yerusalem to Niccea. 

Simple as was this faith, and strongly as it was 
attested by a continuous line of witnesses from the 
apostles down, it was maintained by the Church 
only as the result of a prolonged and determined 
conflict. The time was astir with speculation. 
Even as early as the days of St. Paul Gnosticism 
was " in the air," — an evidence of which we 
may find, perhaps, in the apostle's half-scornful 
expression, " Knowledge (yvcocris) puffs up; love 
builds up," — but it did not come into distinct 
shape until near the middle of the second century. 
Judaistic heresies were rife for a time, but like Jew- 
ish persecution of Christians compared with pagan 
persecution, they were of far less significance and 
power than the Gentile heresies. The latter all 
fall under the general name Gnosticism, — unless 
we except Manichaeism, which was a mixture of 
ideas from India and Persia, with a slight infusion 
of Christian ideas. Even Manichaeism, however, 
had certain decidedly Gnostic elements. 

In the East, Christian thinkers were profoundly 
influenced by Plato, and this influence was espe- 
cially strong in Alexandria, where Platonism 
received from Philo a Jewish cast. In the West, 
the church was characterized by a more practical 
spirit, and its great leaders turned their attention 
rather to the development of ecclesiastical organi- 
zation and adminstration, than to the elaboration 
of doctrines. Gnosticism had a much stronger 
hold in the East, therefore, than in the West. 



Struggle within the Church. 279 

Gnosticism was essentially eclectic. From Hel- 
lenism it derived its intellectual spirit, as its very 
name indicates ; from Orientalism it derived its 
pantheistic conception of the world and also its 
dualism ; and from Christianity it derived the idea 
of redemption. Some forms of Gnosticism, like 
that of Marcion, were violently antagonistic to 
Judaism. Other forms, like that of Basilides, were 
sympathetic toward Judaism. All forms of Gnos- 
ticism were docetic ; they evaporated the facts of 
the gospel history into myths and symbols. All 
forms of Gnosticism were also dualistic, and they 
identified evil with matter. The great questions 
considered by the Gnostics concerned the origin 
of the world and of matter, the nature and destiny 
of man, and the nature of evil and how it is to be 
escaped. In the Gnostic thought there is an in- 
finite separation between the Supreme Being and 
the world, and a necessity, therefore, of positing 
mediating powers for creation as well as redemp- 
tion. The God of the Old Testament was con- 
ceived, not as the Supreme Being, but as a subor- 
dinate Deity, who created the heavens and the 
earth. The void between the Supreme Being, 
who is the Ineffable One of whom no attributes 
can be predicated, and the lowest forms of being, 
is filled by ^Eons, — personified attributes. "In 
all its forms Gnosticism may be said to represent 
the efforts made by the speculative spirit of the 
time to appropriate Christianity, and to make use 



280 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

of some of its most fertile principles for the solu- 
tion of the mysteries lying at the root of human 
speculation." 

It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, ac- 
curately and exhaustively to define Gnosticism, 
and very nearly as difficult sharply to distinguish 
the various Gnostic sects from each other. These 
may be divided into the Judaistic and the anti- 
Judaistic, with Neander; or the ascetic and licen- 
tious, with Clement of Alexandria ; or those which 
were hostile to both Judaism and heathenism, and 
those that saw something of the truth in both 
Judaism and heathenism, with Baur; or Alexan- 
drian (by which term is designated the sects that 
were predominantly influenced by the Platonic 
philosophy) and Syrian (by which term is des- 
ignated the sects that were predominantly influ- 
enced by Parsism) with Giesseler. Two of these 
classifications, those of Neander and Giesseler, are 
practically identical, for Judaistic Gnosticism had 
its chief seat in Alexandria, where the Jewish 
Neoplatonism of Philo was rife, and anti-Judaistic 
Gnosticism had its seat chiefly in Syria. Some of 
the sects were ascetic and rigorously suppressed 
the flesh, while others were openly licentious, 
indulging the flesh because the soul, being wholly 
foreign to the flesh, could not be affected by it 

The Gnostic idea of redemption is that of a re- 
lease or disentanglement of the soul from matter 
in which it is imprisoned. All the systems of 



Struggle within the Church. 281 

Gnostic thought agree in attaching critical impor- 
tance to the coming of Christ, but the redemption 
which Christ achieves is solely by the impartation 
of knowledge and the disclosure of mysteries. 
Some held that Jesus was a mere man, who was 
the bearer of a revelation. Others held that He 
was not man at all, and His bodily manifestation, 
His sufferings, and His death, were but deceptive 
appearances. Still others held that He had a 
double personality: He was a real man inhabited 
temporarily by a messenger from the unseen world, 
who came in the form of a dove at His baptism, 
and departed at the time of His crucifixion. 

As the pagan heresies may all be loosely 
grouped under the term Gnosticism, so the Jew- 
ish heresies may all be grouped under the term 
Ebionism. Of the latter there were several vari- 
eties. The Ebionites proper, whose name is 
derived from " ebion," meaning " poor " (with 
reference to the voluntary poverty of the sect, 
or as a term of reproach applied to the Jewish 
Christians generally by non-Christian Jews), held 
to Christianity as only a slightly modified Juda- 
ism, of which it was the continuation and supple- 
ment. They exalted the Old Covenant at the 
expense of the New, found their ideal of life in a 
perfect legal righteousness, and looked for the res- 
toration of Jerusalem in the coming millennial reign 
of the Messiah. Jesus, they claimed, was the son 
of Joseph and Mary, and, previous to His baptism, 



282 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

merely a descendant of David. At his baptism 
He became Christ and Messiah, who, in the future, 
is to return and restore all things. They main- 
tained the necessity of observing the law by all 
who would be saved, refused hospitality to Gen- 
tiles, and claimed that Jesus was the Christ of God 
because he perfectly fulfilled the law. If any one 
else were perfectly to fulfil the law he also would 
be a Christ. They violently hated the apostle 
Paul, and, while not denying the authenticity of his 
epistles, rejected them as the work of " an apostate 
from the law." They used a recension of Matthew's 
gospel, which was a Chaldee version written in 
Hebrew letters, from which the account of the 
supernatural origin of Jesus was omitted. In these 
Ebionites we recognize prominent features of the 
Judaizing troublers of St. Paul in Asia Minor. 

The Essenian Ebionites were tinctured with 
Gnosticism. These rejected all the Old Tes- 
tament writings except the Pentateuch, from 
which they eliminated whatever was not in ac- 
cord with their principles. They held that God 
appointed two antagonistic powers, — Christ and 
the devil. The present world belongs to the devil, 
and the world to come belongs to Christ. Christ 
was created a Spirit by the Father, and had His 
first incarnation in Adam. At last He had come 
in Jesus. Jesus they held to be the successor of 
Moses and of no higher authority, but they admit- 
ted His miraculous origin. 



Struggle within the Church. 283 

They also were ascetic, refusing to eat flesh. They 
observed the Lord's day as well as the Sabbath, 
discarded sacrifices and reverence for the temple, 
and, contrary to the ascetic principle, honored 
marriage ; but they detested St. Paul, rejected his 
epistles, and declined all fellowship with the uncir- 
cumcised. Once each year they observed the 
Lord's Supper, using unleavened bread and water. 
Unlike the Ebionites proper, they sought to make 
converts, and produced some literature. 

There were also Ebionitic sects, such as the 
Nazarenes, who were more moderate in their views 
than the preceding. They did not demand that 
the Gentile Christians should observe the Jewish 
ceremonies, and they recognized St. Paul as a 
teacher for the Gentiles. But Ebionism was tran- 
sient, and its influence on the whole, at least after 
apostolic times, was not great. It survived in a 
few adherents until about the middle of the fifth 
century. 

Gnosticism appears in such multifarious forms, 
and is so wanting in definiteness and coherence as 
a system of thought, that I can present it most 
intelligibly by sketching in succession the lives 
and teachings of its principal representatives, with- 
out attempting any distinct classification. All 
forms of Gnosticism agree in certain pretty well 
defined principles. These are: the infinite re- 
moteness of the Supreme Being; the absolute evil 
of matter; and redemption, or escape from en- 
tanglement with matter, by means of gnosis, or 



284 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

occult knowledge. These principles are differently 
embodied and differently emphasized by different 
Gnostic teachers. The method of all is character- 
ized by an extraordinary use of allegorism and 
symbolism. In discussing Gnostic theories we 
are dealing all the time, not at all with facts, nor 
even with ideas, so much as with fantasies. From 
these the Gnostic ideas must be extracted. 

Among the very first of the Gnostics known to 
Christian history is Simon Magus, of whom we 
have a glimpse in the Acts of the Apostles, but 
about whom there is such a cloud of legend and 
fable that it is difficult to extract therefrom any 
distinct personality or definite teaching. Simon 
Magus is commonly classed as a Gnostic, and, if 
he is properly identified with the Simon who fig- 
ures in the criticism of Gnosticism by Irenaeus and 
others, he undoubtedly did appropriate certain 
Gnostic ideas. It is apparent that he neither 
understood Christianity, nor to any extent came 
under its influence. The story of his conversion 
by St. Peter, reported in the Acts of the Apostles, 
shows us that his professed conversion was a sham. 

He was a native of Gitta, in Samaria, and was a 
magician rather than a philosopher. His scheme 
included the idea of male and female principles in 
the Supreme Being, and the doctrine of the trans- 
migration of souls. These ideas were already 
current, and he had the cleverness to adopt them 
and turn them to his own uses. .Irenaeus tells us 



Struggle within the Church. 285 

that he represented himself as " the Being who is 
the Father over all." He carried about with him 
a certain Helena, a prostitute whom he had re- 
deemed from slavery at Tyre. This woman Simon 
declared to be " the first conception of his mind, 
the mother of all, by whom, in the beginning, he 
conceived in his mind [the thought] of forming 
angels and archangels." This " Enncea," as she is 
called, " leaping forth from him, and comprehend- 
ing the will of her Father, descended to the lower 
regions [of space], and generated angels and 
powers." These angels and powers were the crea- 
tors of this world. After " Enncea " had produced 
these, " she was detained by them through motives 
of jealousy, because they were unwilling to be 
looked upon as the progeny of any other being." 
Of himself, Simon affirmed, they had no knowl- 
edge whatever. 

"Enncea" suffered much from her captors, and 
was " shut up in a human body, and for ages passed 
in succession from one female body to another, as 
from vessel to vessel." She was, for example,- the 
famous Helen of Troy. At last she appeared as a 
common prostitute, and it was she whom Jesus 
meant by the lost sheep in His parable. 

To free her from bondage, and to set right the 
disorder of the world caused by the angels, and to 
save men by making himself known to them, 
Simon, though not a man, had appeared among 
men as a man. He it was " who appeared among 
the Jews as the Son, but descended in Samaria as 



286 From Jerusalem, to Niccza. 

the Father, while he came to other nations in the 
character of the Holy Spirit." He was thought to 
have suffered in Judea, but this was an error. The 
prophets, he maintained, " uttered their predictions 
under the inspiration of those angels who formed 
the world." They were therefore no longer to be 
regarded. Men were to be " saved through his 
grace, and not on account of their own righteous 
actions." His followers were at liberty to live as 
they pleased. In the system of Simon, Hellena 
is the Gnostic Sophia. 

His followers led profligate lives and practised 
magical arts, using exorcism, incantations, love- 
potions and charms. " He was," says Tulloch, 
" plainly an impostor of the first magnitude, who 
must be credited with a marvellous and unblushing 
audacity rather than with any clear philosophic or 
spiritual aims." 

Simon was succeeded by a disciple named Men- 
ANDER, also a Samaritan, who like his master prac- 
tised magic. Menander did not claim to be the 
chief power, but did claim to be a Saviour. Dis- 
ciples, baptized in his own name, he said, would 
receive a resurrection and would neither die nor 
grow old, but abide in immortal youth. 

One of the earliest Gnostics was CERINTHUS, a 
traditional contemporary and opponent of St. 
John. He was of Egyptian origin, in religion a 



Struggle within the Church. 287 

Jew, and was educated in the Judaeo-Philonic 
school of Alexandria. On leaving Egypt he 
visited Jerusalem, Caesarea, and Antioch ; thence 
he passed into Asia Minor and made his head- 
quarters in Galatia. A story survives of his meet- 
ing with St. John in the public baths in Ephesus. 
The apostle, hearing who was there, fled from the 
place as if for life, crying to those about him: 
" Let us flee, lest the bath fall in while Cerinthus, 
the enemy of the truth, is there." 

We cannot place much confidence in the tradi- 
tions on which this brief account of Cerinthus is 
based. He, rather than Simon Magus, seems to 
have been the earliest teacher of Jewish-Christian 
Gnosticism. He made no claim for himself of 
sacred and mystic power, but pretended to have 
received angelic revelations. Having been trained 
in the school of Philo, he did not hold to a malig- 
nant opposition between matter and spirit. Ac- 
cording to him the world was created, not by " the 
First God," but by inferior angelic Beings. The 
God of the Jews he identified with the Angel who 
delivered the Law. 

Cerinthus' view of Christ is Ebionitic : Christ 
was the Personality on whom the Holy Spirit 
descended to enable Him to perform miracles, 
but the Spirit flew heavenward when Christ came 
to His sufferings. Cerinthus believed that " the 
Lord shall have an earthly kingdom in which the 
elect are to enjoy pleasures, feasts, marriages, and 



288 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

sacrifices. The capital of this kingdom is Jeru- 
salem, and its duration one thousand years ; at the 
end of that period shall ensue the restoration of all 
things." This notion he undoubtedly derived from 
Jewish sources. He held that if a man died unbap- 
tized, another should be baptized in his place, in 
order that, at the resurrection, he might not suffer 
punishment. He also held that the words of Moses, 
and those of the prophets, were inspired by differ- 
ent angels, and he insisted on the practice of cir- 
cumcision and the observance of the Sabbath. 

There is a curious and somewhat early belief 
that Cerinthus was the author of the Apocalypse, 
which he ascribed to St. John in order to obtain 
credit and currency for his forgery. The followers 
of Cerinthus soon disappeared, some relapsing 
into stricter Ebionism, but the majority being 
absorbed into other Gnostic sects. 

SATURNINUS, who, according to Irenaeus, derived 
his doctrine from Simon Magus and Menander, 
taught in Syrian Antioch in the first half of the 
second century. He held that the Father, who is 
unknown to all, created Angels, Archangels, 
Powers and Authorities, but that the world and 
man were made by seven angels. These angels 
saw a brilliant image descend from the Supreme 
Power, and tried to detain it, but they could not; 
so they said, " Let us make man after the image 
and after the likeness." The man, when created, 



Struggle within the Church. 289 

could not stand erect, but grovelled like a wrig- 
ling worm. Then the Upper Power in compas- 
sion sent a spark of life which raised the man and 
made him live. At his death this spark returns 
to its source, and the rest of the man is resolved 
back into its original elements. This creation- 
tnyth was substantially held also by the Ophites. 

Saturninus taught that the God of the Jews was 
one of the seven angels. These were in constant 
warfare with Satan and a company of evil angels. 
There were also two kinds of men, the good and 
the bad. The evil angels aided the bad men in 
their strife with the good. At last the Supreme 
Being sent a Saviour to destroy, inconsistently 
enough, the power of the God of the Jews and the 
creator-angels, and to save the good men. This 
Saviour was a man only in appearance. Here we 
have the characteristic Gnostic docetism, and its 
doctrines that evil has its source in the creation of 
matter and that redemption is by escape from mat- 
ter. Some of the Jewish prophecies Saturninus as- 
cribed to Satan, and some to the creator-angels. 
He also taught that marriage came from Satan. 
Many of his disciples followed him strictly in this 
teaching, and also abstained from animal food of 
all kinds, attracting admiring followers by their 
severity of life. Saturninus left no writings. 

To the same time belongs Cerdo, who came to 
Rome from Syria in 135, or a little later. He 



290 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

seems to have held to two first principles and two 
gods, one good and the other evil, the latter the 
creator of the world ; though another account 
ascribes to him the teaching that the God revealed 
in the law and the prophets was not the Father of 
Jesus Christ, for the former was only just, but the 
latter was good. The accounts are conflicting 
and, as Cerdo left no writings, it is impossible to 
determine his exact doctrines. He seems to have 
had no intention of forming a sect, but to have 
frequented the churches, promulgating his ideas 
both publicly and privately. His followers were 
soon after merged in the school of Marcion. 

CARPOCRATES was a Platonic philosopher, who 
taught in Alexandria, also in the early part of the 
second century, probably during the reign of 
Hadrian. He incorporated Christian elements 
into his system, and became the founder of an 
heretical sect. He taught that different angels 
and powers emanated from the One Unknown 
and Ineffable God, and the lowest of these created 
the world. Good souls escape from these, and 
rule them, by magical arts, and finally ascend to 
God who is above them. 

Jesus was only a man, but was superior to other 
men in that His soul, remaining steadfast and pure, 
remembered the revelations which it had seen 
before it issued from God, and therefore had power 
to escape the makers of the world. He despised 



Struggle within the Church. 291 

the Jewish customs, and consequently was able to 
destroy the passions which are given to men as a 
punishment. Others might be equal or superior 
to Jesus if they also despised the rulers of the 
world. 

Carpocrates adopted from Plato his idea of 
reminiscence : human knowledge is but the recol- 
lection of what had been seen in a pre-existent 
state. His followers had pictures and images of 
Christ which they honored, but they paid the 
same honors to philosophers, such as Pythagoras, 
Plato, and Aristotle. They illustrated their con- 
tempt for the rulers of the world by practising 
immorality without scruple and without restraint. 
They held that " things in themselves were indif- 
ferent; nothing was in its own nature good or 
evil, and was only made so by human opinion. 
The true Gnostic might practise everything, — nay, 
it was his duty to have experience of all." They 
also adopted a form of the doctrine of the trans- 
migration of souls : souls which had completed 
their experience passed up into fellowship with 
God ; those which had not were sent back to 
inhabit other bodies for further discipline ; finally 
all would be saved. Salvation, however, per- 
tained only to the soul ; there would be no resur- 
rection of the body. 

Carpocrates claimed to have the true teaching 
of Christ, which had been communicated to the 
disciples in secret and by them was passed on to 



292 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

the faithful. His followers became proverbial for 
their deliberate licentiousness ; and the Christians 
believed that the reports which were circulated 
among the heathen, of shameless orgies practised 
by the Christians in their love-feasts, had a basis 
of truth in the customs of the Carpocratians. It 
is said that the Carpocratians had a secret bodily- 
mark by which they knew each other. A part of 
their baptismal ceremony was branding the back 
of the right ear-lobe. This act represented the 
" baptism with fire." They also practised magic, 
claiming miraculous powers equal to those of 
Christ. A son of Carpocrates, who was associated 
with his father in propagating his doctrines, but 
who died early in life, is said to have been deified 
and worshipped by the inhabitants of his mother's 
native town in Cephalonia. 

A contemporary of Carpocrates was BASILIDES, 
the founder of a Christian-Gnostic sect in Egypt. 
He claimed to be a disciple of one Glaucias, an 
alleged interpreter of St. Peter. According to 
Irenseus he, like Saturninus, derived his doctrines 
from Simon Magus and Menander. This can 
scarcely be true, however, for what little system of 
thought Simon Magus had is radically different 
from that of Basilides. Basilides was probably a 
native of Syria. Little is known of his life, save 
that it was spent mainly in Alexandria, and that 
he wrote twenty-four books on the Gospel, — the 



Struggle within the Church. 293 

" Exegetica." Origen says that he " had the au- 
dacity to write a ' Gospel according to Basilides.' " 
This may have been one of the numerous apoc- 
ryphal gospels, the production of which began in 
the second century and continued for several cen- 
turies. It is possible however, that it was simply 
a portion of the " Exegetica." Various fragments 
of the " Exegetica " have been collected by Grabe 
and others. The teachings of Basilides have been 
preserved to us in the writings of Irenaeus and 
Clement, and especially Hippolytus. The last is 
much more full than either of the others, and, 
with an occasional contribution from Clement, 
must be mainly relied on. 

The system of Basilides is bewildering in its 
vagueness and transcendentalism. It is distin- 
guished by the unusual course, for a Gnostic, of 
discarding the emanation theory, or downward 
evolution, and predicating instantaneous creation 
and evolution upwards. All things, according to 
Basilides, arise from pure nothing. By this pri- 
meval nothing, or " not-being God " (qvk cov 0eo?), 
of which absolutely nothing can be predicated, 
was produced a non-existent and non-differentiated 
" Seed-world," which contained the germs of all 
future growths. Both Creator and created, how- 
ever, were non-existent. " Whatsoever I affirm," 
says Basilides, " to have been made after these, 
ask no question as to whence. For [the Seed] 
had all seeds treasured and reposing in itself, as 



294 From ^Jerusalem to Niccea. 

non-existent entities, which were designed to be 
produced by the non-existent Deity." In the 
Seed there existed a three-fold Sonship, " in every 
respect of the same substance with the non-exist- 
ent God [and] begotten from non-entities." Of 
this Sonship, part was refined, part gross, or 
coarse, and part needing purification. The re- 
fined part immediately burst forth from the Seed- 
world and went upwards with a velocity like that 
of thought, attaining unto the non-existent Deity. 
The gross portion, not being able to rise, equipped 
itself with the Holy Spirit as a wing; but the 
Spirit, not being of the same substance with the 
non-existent God, nor having " any nature in com- 
mon with the Sonship," could only come near 
" that Blessed Place which cannot be conceived or 
represented by any expression." There it re- 
mained, retaining of the Sonship only the fra- 
grance, as a vessel, emptied of the most fragrant 
ointment, retains the odor, though the ointment 
is gone. The third Sonship remained in the seed- 
world, " conferring benefits and receiving them." 

After the two ascensions of Sonship took place, 
the firmament was extended " between the super- 
mundane spaces and the world." This firmament 
seems to be identical with the Holy Spirit, which 
remains in suspension below the Ineffable, Non- 
Existent God. Meanwhile there burst forth from 
the " Cosmical Seed," or " conglomeration of all 
germs," as Hippolytus calls it, the Great Archon, — 



Struggle within the Church. 295 

the " Head of the world, a certain beauty and 
magnitude and unspeakable power." This Archon 
soared aloft as far as the firmament, where He 
paused, supposing the firmament to be the end of 
all attainment and being. There he became more 
wise, powerful, comely, lustrous, and beautiful, than 
any entity except the Sonship which remained in 
the seed-world. Imagining Himself to be Lord, He 
addressed Himself to the work of creating " every 
object in the cosmical system." But first He 
made a Son, superior to Himself. All this, how- 
ever, had been willed by the Non-Existent Deity. 

The Great Archon, astonished at his Son's 
beauty, set him at his right hand in what is called 
the Ogdoad, where the Great Archon has his 
throne. The Great Archon, now called the Great, 
Wise Demiurge, then formed the entire celestial 
creation, — the Son, being wiser than he, operating 
in him and giving him suggestions. After this 
another Archon, greater than all subjacent entities 
save the third Sonship, but far inferior to the first 
Archon, arose out of the seed-world, or " conglom- 
eration of all germs." He, too, produced a Son 
wiser than Himself, and became the creator and 
governor of the aerial world. This region is called 
the Hebdomad. All this also had been willed by the 
Non-Existent Deity. Later on in the system, as it 
is expounded by Hippolytus, the Great Archon is 
identified with the Ogdoad, " and the Ogdoad is 
Arrhetus," and the second Archon is identified 



296 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

with the Hebdomad, and " the Hebdomad is 
Rhetus." Such is the strange cosmogony which 
Basilides dreamed out as the basis for his view of 
the gospel and his theory of salvation. 

The third Sonship, meanwhile, has remained 
behind in the " Seed," but his true place is " near 
the refined and imitative Sonship and the Non- 
Existent One, " and it is necessary that he should 
be " revealed and reinstated above." This would 
be in accordance with the Scripture, " The creation 
itself groaneth together, and travaileth in pain 
together, waiting for the manifestation of the sons 
of God." " Now we who are spiritual," says 
Basilides, " are sons, who have been left here to 
arrange, and mould, and rectify, and complete the 
souls which, according to nature, are so constituted 
as to continue in this quarter of the universe." 
" Sin, then, reigned from Adam unto Moses." 

The Great Archon seemed to be King and Lord 
of the whole universe, but, in reality, the second 
Archon, the Hebdomad, " was King and Lord of this 
quarter of the universe." This latter being is the 
One who spoke to Moses, saying, " I am the God of 
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and I have not 
manifested unto them the name of God," — that is, 
the God Arrhetus, Archon of the Ogdoad. This 
One is also the source of inspiration to the 
prophets. 

In the condensed report of Basilides which we 
have in Hippolytus, we are now introduced to the 



Struggle within the Church. 297 

gospel. There was no descent from above. The 
blessed Sonship did not withdraw from the Incon- 
ceivable and Blessed and Non-Existent God; but 
the powers, passing upward, caught " the flowing 
and rushing thoughts of the Sonship," as Indian 
naphtha catches flame at some distance from the 
fire. Thus the gospel came first from the Sonship, 
through the Son of the Archon, to the Archon 
Himself, who then learned that he " was not God 
of the universe, but was begotten." By the knowl- 
edge that above himself was the Ineffable and 
Unnameable and Non-Existent One, he was both 
converted and filled with terror, thus illustrating 
the Scripture, "The fear of the Lord is the begin- 
ning of wisdom." " Being orally instructed by 
Christ, who was seated near " (evidently by Christ 
here is meant the Great Archon's Son), he learns 
concerning the Non-Existent One, the Sonship, 
the Holy Spirit, " the apparatus of the universe," 
and the future " consummation of things." This is 
the wisdom to which St. Paul alludes in his saying, 
" Not in words of human wisdom, but in [those] 
taught of the Spirit." The instructed Archon con- 
fesses his sin of having magnified Himself. When 
every creature in the Ogdoad has been " orally 
instructed and taught, and [after] the mystery be- 
comes known to the celestial [powers]," the gospel 
is communicated also to the Hebdomad. " The 
Son of the Great Archon [therefore] kindled in the 
Son of the Archon of the Hebdomad the light 



298 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

which Himself possessed and had kindled from 
above from the Sonship. And the Son of the 
Archon of the Hebdomad had radiance imparted 
to Him, and He proclaimed the gospel to the 
Archon of the Hebdomad." He too is filled with 
terror and makes confession, and all the beings in 
the Hebdomad are enlightened. At this point in 
his account Hippolytus explains that, according to 
the Basilidians, there is an infinite number of beings, 
— Principalities, Powers, and Rulers, — inhabit- 
ing three hundred and sixty-five heavens, the 
Great Archon of which is Abrasax, whose name 
comprises the computed number 365, whence the 
year consists of so many days. 

It now became necessary that the " Formless- 
ness existent in our quarter of the creation" should 
be illuminated, and the " mystery " revealed to the 
Sonship which had remained behind in Formless- 
ness. " The light [therefore] which came down 
from the Ogdoad above to the Son of the Heb- 
domad, descended from the Hebdomad upon Jesus 
the Son of Mary." This is the meaning of the 
Scripture, " The Holy Spirit will come upon thee." 
The entire Sonship which was left behind, being 
transformed, " follows Jesus, and hastens upward, 
and comes forth purified." This whole passage is 
obscure in Hippolytus, perhaps because of his 
failure to grasp Basilides' meaning. It is altogether 
possible that Basilides himself was not quite clear. 
At any rate, when the entire Sonship shall have 



Struggle within the Church. 299 

come above the Limitary Spirit, " then the creation 
shall find mercy, for till now it groans and is 
tormented and awaits the revelation of the sons of 
God, that all men of the Sonship may ascend from 
hence." After this God will bring upon the whole 
world a Vast Ignorance, that souls whose nature it 
is to continue immortal in this stage alone may not 
suffer by craving that which is impossible for 
them, " like fish desiring to feed with sheep on the 
mountains; " for such a desire would be their 
destruction. All things are incorruptible in their 
place, but a wish to pass beyond the things that 
are according to nature would be their destruction. 

In like manner a Vast Ignorance will lay hold on 
the Archon of the Hebdomad, and on the Great 
Archon of the Ogdoad, and all creatures subject to 
Him, that none may desire things impossible and 
so be overwhelmed with sorrow. " And so there 
will be the restitution of all things which, in con- 
formity with nature, have from the beginning a 
foundation in the seed of the universe, but will be 
restored at [their own] proper periods. And that 
each thing, says Basilides, has its own particular 
times, the Saviour is sufficient [witness] when He 
observes, ' Mine hour is not yet come.' And the 
Magi [afford similar testimony] when they gaze 
wistfully upon [the Saviour's] star." 

Jesus, in the Basilidean view, " is the inner 
spiritual man in the natural (psychical) man ; that 
is, a Sonship leaving its soul here, — not a mor- 



300 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

tal soul, but one remaining in its present place 
according to nature, just as the first Sonship up 
above hath left the Limitary Holy Spirit in a fitting 
place; He having at that time been clothed with a 
soul of His own." 

The gospel, in the doctrine of Basilides, is the 
knowledge of super-mundane entities which the 
Greal Archon did not understand. When it was 
shown to him that there are the Holy Spirit and 
the Sonship and the Non-Existent God, who is the 
cause of all these, he rejoiced and was filled with 
exultation. The birth of Jesus and all the events 
of His life occurred " in order that Jesus might be- 
come the first-fruits of a distinction of the different 
orders [of created objects] that had been confused 
together." For since the world had been divided 
into an Ogdoad and a Hebdomad and an order 
under these in which is Formlessness, " it was 
requisite that the various orders of created objects 
that had been confounded together should be dis- 
tinguished by a separating process performed by 
Jesus." Only the corporeal part of Jesus suffered 
and reverted to Formlessness ; his psychical part was 
resuscitated and returned to the Hebdomad; that 
element of his nature which belonged to the region 
of the Great Archon ascended to be with the Great 
Archon ; and that which pertained to the Spirit 
remained with the Spirit; and the third Sonship, 
purified through Him, ascended through all these 
stages of being to the blessed Sonship. 



Struggle within the Church. 301 

The whole theory, according to Hippolytus, con- 
sists of a conglomeration and confusion of all 
things in the " Seed-world," and the sorting and 
restoration of these into their proper places. 
" Jesus, therefore, became the first-fruits of the dis- 
tinction of the various orders of created objects, 
and His passion took place for no other reason than 
the distinction which was thereby brought about in 
the various orders of created objects that had been 
confounded together." 

Obscure and difficult as this system is to our 
minds, we can see that it is an attempt, by means 
of a colossal symbolism, to arrive at a philosophic 
explanation of the origin of things, the origin of 
evil, and the way of salvation. Evil lies in the 
confusion of the spiritual and psychical with the 
material, and salvation is by enlightenment and 
the consequent elimination of the spiritual and 
psychical from the material. In his moral teaching 
Basilides inculcated a moderate ascetism. Bunsen 
maintains that he "was a pious Christian, and wor- 
shipped with his congregation," and he says, " He 
is the first Gnostic teacher who has left an indi- 
vidual personal stamp upon his age. . . . His 
erudition is unquestionable. He had studied Plato 
deeply. . . . All that was great in the Basilidean 
system was the originality of thought and moral 
earnestness of its founder." 

The followers of Basilides seem to have departed 
both from his ethical principles and his speculative 



3<D2 From Jerusalem to Niccza, 

teachings. They became loose in morals and pro- 
nouncedly dualistic in doctrine, and they carried 
docetism so far that the whole life of Christ was to 
them a mere sham. " They held it prudent to re- 
pudiate Christianity in times of persecution, and 
practised various sorts of magic, in which the 
abraxas gems x did them service." 

The author of the most luxuriant and interest- 
ing, and, perhaps, the most profound system of 
Gnostic thought was VALENTINUS. He was born in 
Egypt, and was educated at Alexandria in Greek 
literature and science. As Basilides was said to 
have been a disciple of Glaucias, an interpreter 
of St. Peter, so Valentinus was said by his fol- 
lowers to have been a disciple of one Theodas, 
who was acquainted with St. Paul. The Gnostics 
were fond of affirming that their secret doctrines 
were derived from the apostles. 

The date of Valentinus' birth is unknown, but 
from various sources of information it is evident 
that, during the latter part of Hadrian's reign, he 
appeared as a teacher in Egypt and Cyprus (in 
this I follow Lipsius), and that, from about 138 
to 160, he taught in Rome. He was at first an 
orthodox member of the Catholic Church, but 
quite early, probably before he went to Rome, 
he began to develop his Gnostic interpretation 

1 So Schaff and others ; but the connection of the abraxas gems 
with the Gnostics is now denied by some scholars and seriously 
doubted by most. 



Struggle within the Church. 303 

of Christianity which has made him famous. Ter- 
tullian states that he did not separate himself from 
the Church, but remained in it using a twofold 
mode of teaching, — an exoteric mode for the sim- 
pler believers, and an esoteric mode for the initiated. 
Tertullian adds also that he was twice temporarily 
suspended from communion, and was ultimately ex- 
communicated. Hippolytus maintains that, after- 
wards, he went to Cyprus as a declared heretic. It 
is generally thought that he died in Cyprus about 
the year 160, but Irenaeus seems to indicate that 
he died in Rome. He was evidently an able and 
eloquent man. So distinguished a scholar as 
Bunsen has vindicated his Christian character. 

His writings, as far as they are known to us, 
consist mainly of fragments of epistles and homi- 
lies which have been preserved in the works of 
Clement. Tertullian mentions that he was the 
author of psalms, or hymns, and fragments of one 
or two of these may be found in Hippolytus. One 
of these fragments of a Gnostic hymn has been 
metrically translated by Cruice as follows : — 

" All things whirled on by spirit I see, 
Flesh from soul depending, 
And soul from air forth flashing, 
And air from aether hanging, 
And fruits from Bythus streaming, 
And from womb the infant growing." 

The system of Valentinus is wrought out with 
great ability, and his style rises at times into lyric 
beauty and force of expression. 



304 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

Somewhat varying accounts of the system are 
furnished in the writings of Irenaeus, Tertullian, 
Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus, and Epipha- 
nius. All of these are of course more or less 
hostile critics of Valentinus, and their accounts 
are interrupted with criticisms, so that it is im- 
possible without much patient and laborious com- 
parison, to produce a consistent and complete 
statement of the system. The most that I shall 
attempt here is a sketch, as brief as is consistent 
with intelligibleness. 

According to Valentinus, then, the originating 
cause of all being is a Monad variously styled 
Father, Perfect ^Eon (Alcbv Te'Xeto?), The Be- 
ginning ( f H 'Apxy), and Before the Beginning 
(Hpoapxv)y wno is " unbegotten, imperishable, 
incomprehensible, inconceivable, productive, and 
a cause of the generation of all existent things." 
This Being dwelt in infinite solitude. Then, 
moved by love, for " He was all love, but love is 
not love except there be some object of affection, " 
He produced, by emanation, Intellect, or Mind, 
(NoO?), and Truth ('AX^eta). Intellect is the self- 
consciousness of the Father, and is indissolubly 
joined with Truth. These two produced Word 
(A070?) and Life (Zcorf), and they, in turn, pro- 
duced Man ("A^^/30)7ro?) and Church ('E^/cX^crta). 
Thus, Pressense suggests, is symbolically expressed 
the truth that " the absolute can be fully mani- 
fested only in humanity." Then, for the glory 



Struggle within the Church. 305 

of the Father, Intellect and Truth produced ten 
yEons, a perfect number, " because this is the 
first of those numbers that are formed by plurality, 
and therefore perfect" Word and Life, seeing 
that Intellect and Truth " had celebrated the 
Father of the universe by a perfect number," 
desired to magnify their progenitors ; so they pro- 
duced twelve ^Eons, an imperfect number. All 
these ^Eons have names that signify predicates 
or qualities : for example, in the first series we 
have: Bythus, meaning Profundity; Mixis, Mixture; 
Ageratos, Ever young; Henosis, Unification; He- 
done, Voluptuousness ; Macaria, Blessedness, etc.; 
in the second series we have Paracletus, meaning 
Comforter; Pistis, Faith; Elpis, Hope; Agape, 
Love; Sophia, Wisdom, etc. These twenty-eight 
^Eons, namely, Intellect, Truth, Word, Life, Man, 
Church, the ten emanations of Intellect and Truth, 
and the twelve emanations of Word and Life, con- 
stitute the Pleroma, or Divine fulness. 

The harmony of the Pleroma is perfect, since 
the attraction, or the centripetal force of the 
Abyss, and the propulsion, or the centrifugal 
force of emanation, are equal. But discord en- 
ters ; Sophia, the last of the emanations, desires 
to enter into fuller union with the Father; she 
also desires, in imitation of the Father, to produce 
alone and unaided. All the ^Eons are arranged 
in Syzygiae, or pairs. Sophia, the feminine yEon, 
succeeds in producing only " a formless and un- 



306 From yerusalem to Niccea. 

digested substance ; " and " this is what Moses 
asserts, ' the earth was invisible and unfashioned ' " 
(" without form and void " in our Common Ver- 
sion). At once there is confusion in the Pleroma, 
and all the ^Eons are filled with fear over the 
" shapelessness " begotten by Sophia, imagining 
" that in like manner formless and incomplete 
progenies of the ^Eons should be generated, and 
that some destruction, at no distant period, should 
at length seize upon the /Eons." Sophia herself 
bursts into weeping and lamentation over the 
amorphous thing which she has produced. All 
the ^Eons then beseech the Father to tranquillize 
her, and He, in compassion, orders another emana- 
tion, and Intellect and Truth produce Christ and 
the Holy Spirit, " for the restoration of Form, and 
the destruction of the abortion, and the consola- 
tion ... of Sophia." 

There are now thirty ^Eons. The shapeless 
thing is cast out, and the Father projects the 
Great /Eon, variously named Staurus (which 
means stake or cross), and Horos, and Metocheus, 
who is fixed inflexibly on the confines of the 
Pleroma " for the guardianship and defence of 
the /Eons." Christ gives form to the shapeless 
thing outside, that it may not be lost in utter con- 
fusion, making it a lower, or external, Sophia, — a 
Sophia according to being (jcar ovalav), but not 
according to knowledge (tcara yvoocrtv). This in- 
ferior double of Sophia is called also Achamoth, 



Struggle within the Church, 307 

though Hippolytus continues to call her Sophia. 
Peace is now restored to the Pleroma, and, to cele- 
brate its return and to glorify the Father, all the 
iEons unite in producing a being of most perfect 
beauty, who is Jesus, or Soter (Swtt;/), Saviour) ; 
He is also called " Joint Fruit of the Pleroma." 
This is the conclusion of the first part of " this 
Gnostic trilogy." 

I pause a moment to note some of the curious 
allegorical interpretations of Scripture used by 
the Valentinians which are preserved by Irenasus. 
The thirty years before Jesus entered upon His 
public ministry mystically indicate the thirty ^Eons. 
The twelve years of His age when He dis- 
puted with the doctors in the temple indicate the 
Duodecad of yEons (the twelve produced by Word 
and Life). The other eighteen y£ons are indi- 
cated by the first two letters of Jesus' name, — I 
and 77 of I^o-oi)?, the numerical value of I in Greek 
being 10, and of 77, 8. The twelfth apostle, Judas, 
by his apostasy, points to the disastrous passion 
of Sophia, the twelfth ^Eon; the same thing is 
indicated by the woman mentioned in the Gos- 
pels, who had been afflicted by an issue of blood 
twelve years. These examples will give some 
idea of the fantastic allegorism developed by the 
Gnostics. 

We pass now to the second movement of the 
Gnostic drama. With the origin of Achamoth 
begins the real world-process. Sophia had com- 



308 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

municated to Achamoth all the fire which con- 
sumed her. This creature "darts upwards towards 
the Infinite, painfully beating her wings against 
the impassable boundary, and crying out passion- 
ately for the Divine light and life." Jesus then 
comes to her relief. He draws forth her passions, 
and these become " the substance of the matter 
from which this world is formed : " fear constitutes 
the psychical, sorrow the material, and despair the 
demonic, elements. The sorrows of Achamoth 
are depicted with great beauty of imagery. The 
seas and fountains and rivers are her tears, and 
the light that irradiates them is her smile when 
she remembers her brief glimpse of the Pleroma. 
Of her fear is born the Demiurge, for " the fear of 
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. " This one 
is the creator of our world, and the God of the 
Old Testament. He it is who inspired the proph- 
ets, and who said : " I am God, and beside Me 
there is no other." 

Achamoth occupies the Ogdoad, immediately 
beyond the confines of the Pleroma, the sphere 
of the spiritual, immeasurably above the psychi- 
cal; while the Demiurge occupies the Hebdomad, 
and into him Achamoth infuses vigor and energy, 
so that, though she is really the operating cause, 
he " imagines that he evolves the creation of the 
world out of himself." Out of the psychical and 
material elements he creates men, to a select num- 
ber of whom Achamoth secretly imparts some 



Struggle within the Church. 309 

sparks of the spiritual ; these constitute the moral 
aristocracy of mankind, in contrast with psychical 
and material beings. We have in these pneu- 
matic men the first appearance in Christianity of 
that idea of predestination which holds so large a 
place in the post-Reformation theology. This, 
however, is not at all the predestinationism of 
St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans. 

When the creation was completed, and the time 
came for a revelation of the sons of God, — that is, 
of the Demiurge, — the Demiurge sends forth a 
Messiah, whom he had promised by the prophets, 
causing Him to be born of Mary, through whom 
he passes like water through a tube. This Messiah 
is endowed with pneumatical, or spiritual, elements 
by Achamoth, but He has no hylic, or material, 
elements which are incapable of being saved. His 
psychical body is so constituted that it can be 
seen and handled and may even suffer. On this 
point the Valentinians divide, — some holding that 
the psychical Messiah received the spiritual en- 
dowment at the Baptism, while others hold that 
a pneumatical body was produced by the descent 
of Achamoth upon Mary, with the assistance of 
the Demiurge. The Messiah, in whom is Jesus, 
the Soter, or Saviour, produced conjointly by 
all the ^Eons, enlightens the Demiurge as to 
the existence of the Pleroma, and carries the true 
light to the spiritual portion of mankind which 
was destined to receive it. In consistency with 



310 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

all the other Gnostic systems, salvation is by illu- 
mination. In the crucifixion and passion of the 
Messiah, which are interpreted symbolically, the 
Soter is usually conceived to have no part. 

" The saving process consists in the exaltation 
of the pneumatical element in man, and the end 
of all things is the separation of the pneumatical 
and the psychical from the hylical." As a result 
of this saving process, Achamoth, released from 
all distress, is joined in celestial marriage with the 
Soter, and restored to the Pleroma, in company 
with all spiritual natures — the true Gnostics — 
who have been married to the angels of the Soter, 
to celebrate in ineffable blessedness, the eternal 
marriage feast. " The Demiurge, with all right- 
eous psychical natures, is lifted up to the inter- 
mediate place near to, but not in, the Pleroma; " 
afterwards fire consumes all matter. 

Valentinian Gnosticism, though it continued till 
the sixth century, reached its culmination about the 
close of the second. A curious document in the 
Coptic language, one of the very few Gnostic 
writings that have survived, called " Pistis Sophia," 
or "The Believing Wisdom," gives its final develop- 
ment. The Valentinian ethics, says Harnack, show 

"a fine combination of spiritual freedom with the element 
of asceticism. Their thesis, that primarily it is not the 
outward act but the intention that is important, was mis- 
understood by the fathers of the Church, as if they had 
given permission to pneumatic persons to live in license, 



Struggle within the Church. 311 

to deny the faith under persecution, and the like. But 
there is no foundation for this. The fragments we pos- 
sess from the writings of Valentinus and his school, show 
rather that they were second to no Christian body in 
moral earnestness. The Valentinians appear to have 
joined in the religious worship of the main body of the 
Church so long as they were tolerated within it. But 
along with this they celebrated their own mysteries, in 
which only the initiated might take part. . . . The 
various Valentinian schools were above all, united in their 
attitude towards the Scriptures. They were Biblical theo- 
logians ; that is to say, they started from the conviction 
that complete wisdom lay only in the words of Jesus 
Christ, or, in other words, in the Gospels. They accord- 
ingly sought to base their systems throughout on the 
words of the Lord, applying to these the allegorical 
method. In a secondary degree, they availed themselves 
also of the writings of the apostles." 

Valentinian Gnosticism had a more powerful 
influence on the Church than any other form, 
not even excepting that of Marcion ; this appears 
especially in the Christian method of interpreting 
Scripture, in Christology, in the later dogma of 
Purgatory, and in the twofold ethics illustrated in 
monachis'm, in which we find set forth a morality 
for the ordinary Christians, and a higher, ascetical 
morality for those devoting themselves exclusively 
to a religious life. 

BARDAISAN, or BARDESANES, is usually classed as 
a Valentinian Gnostic. He was born in Edessa in 



312 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

154, and survived to a great age. He never broke 
with the Church (which indeed is true of many 
Gnostics), and he was famous for his Christian 
hymns, which were mildly tinctured with Gnosti- 
cism. Mceller calls him " the father of Syrian 
Church-song," and says that " his hymns had such 
vitality, that even in the fourth century Ephraem 
Syrus sought to replace them by orthodox com- 
positions, on account of their Gnostic coloring." 
He preached the gospel for a time in Armenia, 
but his teachings and influence do not seem to 
have gone westward further than Syria. Hippoly- 
tus ranks him with the Eastern Valentinians, yet 
there is grave doubt of his ever having been a 
follower of Valentinus. His doctrine seems to 
have contained decided Manichaean elements. He 
wrote against the Marcionites, opposing them, 
however, because of their harsh rejection of the 
Old Testament. 

With this brief notice of Bardaisan I pass on 
to notice as briefly the violently anti-Judaistic 
Gnostics. 

Ophites (from v O<I>I2, serpent), or Naassenes 
(Hebrew Nahasfr), is a name applied to various 
sects of Gnostics in whose systems the serpent 
figures largely, in some of them receiving special 
honor. Their use of the serpent arose partly from 
the influence of serpent-symbolism and serpent- 
worship, which had place in various ancient relig- 



Struggle within the Church. 313 

ions, notably those of the Egyptians and the 
Phoenicians, and partly from the exigencies of 
their fundamental theory. 1 Irenaeus maintains that 
the Ophites originated in the heresy of Simon 
Magus. They believed that matter is inherently 
evil, therefore the creator of matter could not be 
the Supreme Good God. This idea was confirmed 
by the Old Testament account of the effort of God 
to keep the first pair of human beings from attain- 
ing the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent 
who promised knowledge to Adam and Eve was 
evidently their friend. Moreover, it was a serpent- 
rod by which Moses wrought his miracles ; it was 
a brazen serpent also that saved the perishing 
Israelites in the wilderness, and was the type of 
Christ. The serpent, too, held a prominent place 
among the constellations, and its form was seen in 
the convolutions of the brain and of the intestines. 
In most of the Ophite sects, however, the serpent 
fills only a subordinate place, and its use as a sym- 
bol was common to many Gnostic sects ; but the 
name "Ophite" was applied to them opprobriously 
by the Catholics and it clung. The story is told by 
Epiphanius, and repeated by Augustine, that some 
of the Gnostics allowed tame snakes to crawl 
about and "sanctify" their Eucharistic bread, 
thus, as it seemed to Catholic Christians, " binding 

1 Salmon observes that " there is sufficient evidence that in the 
countries where Gnosticism most flourished, a heathen use of the 
serpent emblem had previously existed." 



314 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

themselves to the author of evil by a sacrament of 
abomination." 

The Ophites, as they are represented in the 
pages of Irenaeus, held a theory, not only strongly 
marked with sensuousness, but also containing 
large Zoroastrian elements. The history of the 
world is a struggle between the kingdom of light 
and the kingdom of darkness. In points, the 
Ophite Gnosticism resembles the system of Sat- 
urninus and also the system of Valentinus, though 
it is more pantheistic, less Christian, and less 
moral than the latter. 

The Sethites and Cairrites were sects of the 
Ophite Gnostics. The latter looked on the Maker 
of the world as actually an evil being whom it was 
virtuous to resist ; Cain, therefore, was their hero ; 
they honored also Esau, Korah, and Judas Iscar- 
iot, as the true spiritual men. They were charged 
by Christian writers with great immoralities. They 
constituted, however, only an insignificant sect. 

The chief representative of anti-Judaistic Gnos- 
ticism was MAROON. As the conservatism of St. 
Peter and St. James was caricatured in Ebionism, 
so the radicalism of St. Paul was caricatured in the 
Gnosticism of Marcion. Marcion, a wealthy ship- 
owner, was born in Sinope, in Pontus, early in the 
second century. It is stated that his father was a 
Christian bishop, but this does not seem to be 
well-founded, and, probably, he was converted 



Struggle within the Church. 315 

to Christianity from paganism. He became an 
ardent Christian, and, notwithstanding his Gnosti- 
cism, continued so until his death. About 139 
or 140, he came to Rome where he made a liberal 
contribution of money to the local church. Soon 
after his arrival he fell in with the Syrian Gnostic, 
Cerdo, of whom already I have given a brief 
sketch. Marcion probably had begun to develop 
his system of thought before this time, but to 
some extent it was influenced by Cerdo. He 
earnestly and ably propagated his views, and 
gained many disciples. His doctrines had a large 
number of adherents in Rome, and, during his life 
or afterwards, spread into Egypt, Palestine, Arabia, 
Syria, Cyprus, and even Persia. Their vigor and 
attractiveness are evidenced by the fact that 
among those who wrote against them were such 
men as Justin Martyr, Irenseus, Hippolytus, 
Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and even 
Bardaisan. Marcion rejected all of the New 
Testament writings except ten epistles of St. Paul, 
excluding the pastoral epistles, and the Gospel of 
St. Luke, eliminating from the last whatever was 
incompatible with his system. Harnack is un- 
doubtedly right in saying that Marcion's distinc- 
tive teachings " originated in a comparison of the 
Old Testament with the theology of the apostle 
Paul." An interesting statement of Harnack's is 
" that in the second century only one Christian — 
Marcion — took the trouble to understand Paul; 
but it must be added that he misunderstood him." 



316 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

Perplexed with the problem of evil, Marcion 
adopted the Gnostic view that evil is inseparable 
from matter; hence he held that the God of the 
Old Testament, who was the creator of the world, 
could not be the Supreme Being. He discarded 
entirely the vast succession of ^Eons which filled 
so large a place in the systems of Valentinus and 
other Gnostics, for his aim was practical religion, 
rather than subtle speculation. In the Gospel he 
found a God of goodness and love ; in the Old 
Testament he found a God who was just, stern, 
jealous, wrathful, and variable. These were en- 
tirely incompatible, and he was too conscientious 
and too earnest to be satisfied with the ordinary 
solutions of the difficulty. His scheme, which is 
markedly dualistic, may be epitomized as follows : 

The great God who exists in the highest heaven 
is perfectly good, but is unknown ; Jehovah, the 
Just God, or the Demiurge, exists in the lower 
heaven ; beneath all is matter. Jehovah created 
man and imposed on him a strict law which he 
could not keep ; man therefore fell under his 
curse, and at death was cast into hell. This was 
the miserable condition of the human race until, at 
last, the Supreme Good God had compassion on 
their hard lot and sent them His Son. This Son 
appeared in the fifteenth year of Tiberius in the 
likeness of a man thirty years old. (Marcion dis- 
carded entirely the story of Christ's miraculous 
birth.) After He had preached and wrought 
many miracles of healing, Jehovah being jealous, 



Struggle within the Church. 317 

notwithstanding the Son had perfectly kept His 
law, caused him to be crucified. Jesus then 
descended to hell and preached the gospel there, 
and liberated, not the Old Testament saints, but 
only sinners and malefactors who obeyed His sum- 
mons ; the former He left to the tender mercies of 
the God of Law. He then confronted and con- 
founded Jehovah, condemning Him by His own 
law. " I have a controversy with thee," He said, 
" but I will take no other judge between us than 
thine own law. Is it not written in thy law that 
whoso killeth another shall himself be killed; that 
whoso sheddeth innocent blood shall have his 
own blood shed? Let me, then, kill thee and 
shed thy blood, for I was innocent and thou hast 
shed my blood." Jehovah, seeing himself con- 
demned by His own law, could make no defence, 
but confessed his ignorance, saying : " I thought 
thee but a man, and did not know thee to be a 
God ; take the revenge which is thy due." 

It should be said here that Jehovah also had a 
Messiah, one whom under His inspiration, the 
prophets predicted. " This inferior Saviour will 
indeed come, but only for the chosen people of 
the Demiurge ; to them He will bring a salvation 
worthy of them, — one, namely, that is purely 
material and earthly." Jesus then raised up Paul 
and revealed to him the true way of life and salva- 
tion. At length Marcion himself was raised up to 
reannounce the true gospel. 



3 18 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

Marcion in his writings drew up a long list of 
contrasts between the Old and New Testaments. 
Some of these I quote from Pressense : " While 
the Messiah of the Demiurge is a national and 
local Messiah, Jesus belongs to all mankind. The 
former promises only earthly good; the latter 
speaks altogether of heaven. The Demiurge 
commands the children of Israel to carry away 
the treasures of Egypt ; Jesus directs His disci- 
ples not to take so much as a staff in their hand. 
The Jewish God sent a bear to devour the chil- 
dren who had mocked Elisha, and calls down fire 
from heaven upon his enemies ; the gospel teaches 
only kindness and forgiveness. Lastly, the mer- 
ciful Saviour chose as His disciples the outcasts 
from Judaism." These contrasts Marcion himself 
thus eloquently summarizes : " While Moses lifts 
up his hands to heaven, invoking the slaughter of 
the enemies of Israel, Jesus stretches out His 
hands upon the cross for the salvation of all 
mankind." 

The way of salvation, according to Marcion, is a 
way of antipathy to the religion of the Old Tes- 
tament, and a way of ascetical self-discipline in 
order to attain purification from all matter. " We 
are devoted," he said, "to hatred and to grief." 
He condemned marriage, imposed upon his disci- 
ples inviolable chastity, and urged them to invite 
rather than to shun martyrdom. We read of 
numerous Marcionite martyrs both before and after 



Struggle within the Church. 319 

the triumph of Christianity under Constantine. 
The Marcionites believed in a God of love, and a 
life -of faith and holiness. In their scheme, those 
who did not believe the gospel were left under 
the power of the Demiurge ; in this they were 
more charitable than their Catholic opponents. 
They were ready to die for their faith, but had little 
care for contention. It is said that in his old age, 
Apelles, a disciple of Marcion, declined a con- 
troversy with Rhodon on their points of difference, 
expressing his belief that faith in the Crucified, 
accompanied with a holy life, might suffice for 
the salvation of either, — a judgment in which we 
may well concur. Notwithstanding their failure 
to understand and appreciate the significance of 
Judaism as a preparation for Christianity, the 
Marcionites were fundamentally Christian, and 
their life nobly attested their sincerity and the 
elevation of their aims. Though they were her- 
etics, they were incomparably superior to the 
great majority of the Gnostics. The intensity of 
their hatred to the God of the Old Testament is 
grotesquely illustrated as late as the fifth century 
in the savage old man whom Theodoret met, " who 
washed his face with his own saliva, that he might 
not borrow even a drop of water from the accursed 
wcrld of the Demiurge." 

Manichceism is a system of doctrine originated 
in Persia by MANES, or MANICH,EUS, in the third 



320 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

century. Of Manes' life there are two contradic- 
tory accounts, an Eastern and a Western ; the lat- 
ter is derived from the Acta Archelai, a Greek 
forgery dating from about 335 A. D., and the for- 
mer, from Syrian, Persian, and Arabian chroniclers. 
Upon the Eastern account we must mainly depend 
for our knowledge of Manes' life. He was born 
about 240 A. d. of a Magian family and was well 
educated in Greek, music, mathematics, geog- 
raphy, astronomy, painting, and medicine, and 
also, it is said, in the Scriptures. There are tra- 
ditions that though of Persian parentage, he was 
born in Babylon ; that when he was twelve years 
old an angel announced to him that when he was 
older he should abandon his father's sect of the 
Moghtasilah, or " Baptists " (a sect apparently 
connected with the Elkesaites which had sprung 
up in southern Babylonia, and which probably 
contained Christian elements) ; that when he was 
twenty-four the same angel summoned him to 
establish Manichaeism with the words : " Hail, 
Manes, from me and from the Lord which has 
sent me to thee and chosen thee for his work. 
Now He commands thee to proclaim the glad 
tidings of the truth which comes from Him, and 
to bestow thereon thy whole zeal." We are struck 
with the similarity between this call and the call 
which was addressed to St. Paul recorded in 
Acts xxvi. 

Manes was evidently endowed with considerable 



Struggle within the Church. 321 

speculative genius and a brilliant imagination. 
Whether he ever connected himself with the 
Church is open to doubt, though there is a tradi- 
tion that he early showed great zeal for the faith 
and was ordained a presbyter while quite young. 
He claimed to be the incarnation of the Holy 
Spirit, the Paraclete, promised by Christ to his 
apostles, and his doctrines combined Christian 
with Persian elements. About 267 he went to the 
court of Sapor and at first won the king's favor; 
but there was at that time a revival of Zoroastrian- 
ism, and, when Manes disclosed his full scheme, it 
was seen to involve the overthrow of the national 
religion, and the king resolved to put him to death. 
Manes fled to Turkestan, or even perhaps as far 
as India, "drawn," says Pressense, "towards that 
land of boundless asceticism and sublime panthe- 
ism." In his exile he employed his talents in 
decorating temples with paintings. Then he 
retired to a cave, or grotto, in which he claimed 
to have had extraordinary visions. While there 
he wrote a Gospel, embellishing it with beautiful 
pictures. With this book he returned to Persia 
and presented himself at the court of the new 
king, Hormuz, who embraced his doctrines and 
gave him protection. Two years later, 273 A. D., 
Hormuz died and Varanes I. (Bahram I.) suc- 
ceeded to the throne. The latter was at first 
favorable to the sect; but it spread so rapidly 
as to alarm the national priesthood, and through 



322 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

their influence the king called Manes to a disputa- 
tion with the priests. Manes was condemned as a 
heretic and flayed alive. According to another 
account his body was cut in two, and a part was 
suspended over each gate of the city. A vigorous 
persecution was begun against his followers and 
many of these were put to death, while others 
were scattered over Media, China, Turkestan, and 
other lands. Varanes is reported to have put to 
death two hundred Manichaeans by burying them 
head downwards, with their feet projecting above 
the ground. He then boasted that he had a gar- 
den planted with men instead of trees. 

Manes wrote much, and some of his writings were 
in existence as late as the eleventh century, but 
nothing survives now save some fragments. The 
system of Manes, known as Manichseism, was 
essentially dualistic and contained elements de- 
rived from both Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. 
It posited two original antagonistic principles : 
Ahura-Mazda, the good God of Light, and Angro- 
Mainyus, the evil Prince of Darkness. The Powers 
of darkness in their wild fury leaped so high that 
they caught a glimpse of the radiance from the 
realm of light. When they strove to force their 
way into this realm, the good God, as a defence, 
produced an ^Eon, the Mother of life, and she 
produced the primeval spiritual Man, whom she 
equipped, for his struggle, with the five elements, 
wind, light, water, fire, and matter. These, how- 



Struggle within the Church, 323 

ever, are ideal elements which are copied by the 
Prince of Darkness in the actual elements of this 
lower world. In the conflict the spiritual Man is 
so far overcome by the spirits of darkness that the 
Light-King must intervene to rescue and restore 
him to the Light-Kingdom. Meanwhile, however, 
some part of his luminous essence, or soul, is 
caught by the Powers of darkness and imprisoned 
in material bodies. The rescue of this luminous 
essence is the process of redemption. 

There is, at this point, a similarity between the 
system of Manes and the system of Valentinus, — 
the spiritual man who is partly despoiled of his 
soul suggesting Sophia, and the part of the lumi- 
nous essence caught and imprisoned in matter sug- 
gesting Achamoth. 

That which seemed to be a catastrophe turns 
out to be a device for the destruction of the 
Powers of darkness. This Manes shows by a 
parable: A shepherd sees a wild beast about to 
rush into the midst of his flock. He digs a pit 
and casts into it a kid; the beast springs into the 
pit to devour his prey, but cannot extricate him- 
self. The shepherd delivers the kid and leaves the 
lion to perish. 

The imprisoned soul is diffused throughout 
nature, save a part, which is placed in the sun 
and moon, whence it draws towards itself the 
souls shut up in forms of vegetable and animal 
life. To prevent this process, the Powers of dark- 



324 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

ness create a man, after the likeness of the first 
Man, in whom all the spiritual essence in the world 
is concentrated. This man combines in himself 
elements of both worlds, his body belonging to the 
kingdom of darkness and his soul to the kingdom 
of light. The Prince of Darkness now seeks to fix 
him in the lower world, and so he invites him to 
partake of all the trees in the Garden of Paradise 
save the tree of knowledge. This plot is defeated 
by Christ, who appears in the form of a serpent. 
At this point Manichaeism resembles the theory of 
the Ophites. Adam's true fall is due to Eve, who is 
given to him by the Prince of Darkness as a com- 
panion. " She is seductive sensuousness, though 
also having in her a small spark of light." 

Manichseans violently opposed the Old Testa- 
ment, in this resembling the Marcionites. They 
held that salvation consists in resisting the material, 
and strengthening the spiritual, elements in man. 
Death is the liberation of the soul " which is carried 
away by the moon, as by a heavenly vessel, up to 
the regions of eternal and unclouded light. The 
waxing of the moon corresponds with the moment 
when it opens to receive emancipated souls ; its 
waning marks the time when it has deposited its 
sacred burden safe in the heavenly haven." The 
part which Christ plays in the Manichaean scheme 
of redemption is small; He simply imparts knowl- 
edge of the true way of life. He appeared as a 
man, but His birth and sufferings and death were 



Struggle within the Church. 325 

mere semblances. The process of salvation will be 
complete when the world has lost all that it con- 
tains of the luminous essence, and then the primeval 
spiritual Man will appear again, and matter will be 
destroyed by fire. 

Manichseism was necessarily ascetical. In the 
church organized by Manes there were two classes : 
the Elect, or Perfect, who cast aside all bonds of 
society and marriage, devoted themselves to 
celibacy and contemplation, discarded all posses- 
sions, and refused to do any work ; and the Hearers, 
who were subject to less strict rules than the Elect, 
and whose duty it was to support the Elect. In 
this there is decided trace of Buddhism. Of the 
Elect, who despised industry and exalted idleness 
into a principle of religion, Epiphanius says : — 

" When they are about to eat bread, they first pray and 
pronounce these words : ' I have not gathered in nor 
ground the grain, neither have I sent it to the mill. 
Another has done these things, and has brought thee to 
me. I eat thee without reproaches, for he who reaps 
shall himself be reaped, and he who sends corn to the 
mill shall himself be ground to powder.' " 

Manes, after Christ's example, appointed twelve 
apostles for the government of his church ; over 
these was a thirteenth who represented Manes and 
presided over all ; and under them were seventy- 
two bishops, and deacons and travelling mission- 
aries. He established a rigorous system of fasts, 
Sunday being always one of the fast days, and care- 



326 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

fully prescribed the hours for prayer. The Mani- 
chsean was to pray four times a day, preceding 
each prayer by ablutions, and in his devotions was 
to turn towards the sun, or moon, or the north, ac- 
cording to the hour, as the seat of light. Despite 
the violent death of Manes, and the severe perse- 
cution which fell upon his followers, Manichaeism 
spread rapidly and widely in the East, reaching as 
far as Thibet, India, and China. In 287 an edict was 
promulgated against the Manichaeans in Africa by 
Diocletian, and severe and bloody laws were enacted 
against them by Valentinian in 372, and by Theo- 
dosius in 381. Late in the fourth century they 
numbered among their adherents so able a man as 
the great Augustine. From Africa the sect spread 
into Spain and Gaul. The Manichaeans maintained 
their existence through the middle ages and, as late 
as the last century, according to Gibbon, they were 
numerous in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thrace, and 
Epirus. Indeed there is evidence that they still 
exist in Mesopotamia and Syria. Though they 
are always classed among the heretics, the Mani- 
chaeans were less an heretical sect in the Church 
than a rival organization, with doctrines and rites 
borrowed from Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and 
Christianity. 

The rise and development of Gnosticism in the 
Church was not an unmixed evil. In the first place, 
it powerfully stimulated and developed Christian 



Struggle within the Church, 327 

apologetics, and, in the second place, it gave the 
impulse out of which arose systematic Christian 
theology. The Gnostics were the first who at- 
tempted to put Christianity into an intelligible 
relation to other religions, and to create a compre- 
hensive Christian philosophy of the world. Among 
the evil elements of Gnosticism, which linger even 
to the present time, were its idea of the radical op- 
position between matter and spirit, and its conse- 
quent exaltation of asceticism, and its idea of the 
infinite distance between God and His world. 
These two main ideas exerted a profound and per- 
manent influence on the whole Latin theology, 
which, from the time of Augustine until the present 
century, has so largely determined the character 
of Christian thought. 

There were other divergent, or antagonistic, 
tendencies which developed within the Church, and 
which are more properly denominated, heretical, in 
the later sense of the word. These were Mon- 
tanism, which was at once Illuminist and Puritanical, 
and Rationalism} which took form in the tenets of 
various parties known as Monarchians. Of these I 
can give but the briefest notice. 

Montanism arose in the latter half of the second 
century in Phrygia, Asia Minor. MONTANUS, from 
whom the sect took its name, believed himself to be 

1 I scarcely need to say that I use the term " Rationalism " 
here in the sense in which it is used in historical and polemical 
theology. . ._ ".. 



328 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

the organ of the Holy Spirit. Some have affirmed 
that he claimed to be identical with the Paraclete, but 
of this there is doubt. He had two disciples, women, 
named respectively Priscilla and Maximilla, who 
were prophetesses and fell into strange ecstasies in 
which they " spoke with tongues." These women 
were vigorous propagators of the doctrines taught 
by Montanus. The sect rapidly grew in numbers. 
It spread into Italy and Africa, and in Carthage 
numbered among its adherents the famous Ter- 
tullian. In general its doctrines did not diverge 
greatly from the Catholic doctrines. 

Montanus held that the age of the Spirit 
promised by Jesus had come, and that inspiration, 
therefore, was not confined to the apostles. He 
laid great emphasis on prophesying, " as the 
means appointed by God for the edification and 
guidance of the Church." " The true condition 
for prophesying," according to the Montanist view, 
"was that form of ecstasy in which all self-control 
is lost, and the soul rendered utterly passive in the 
hands of God, — the condition of one in absolute 
trance." In practice the Montanists were ascetical. 
They increased the number of fasts, forbade second 
marriages, encouraged celibacy, abstained from 
holding any political offices, and punished mortal 
sins, such as adultery and apostasy, committed 
after baptism, with absolute and final excommuni- 
cation. God, they said, might pardon such sins, 
but the Church had no power to do so. They 



St niggle within the Church. 329 

met persecution with undaunted courage, courting 
rather than shunning martyrdom. They also op- 
posed the hierarchical tendency of the Church, 
ranking a " prophet " higher than a bishop. 

The Monarchical sects were all anti-trinitarian ; 
that is, they all affirmed that there is but one 
Person in the Godhead. They were commonly 
divided into two classes : those who, like Theodo- 
tus of Byzantium, denied the Incarnation, and held 
that Jesus was only " a man endowed with a pe- 
culiar fulness of the Holy Spirit; " and those who, 
like Sabellius, held that the one God revealed Him- 
self under the three modes of Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit. In the view of the latter, Christ 
was literally " God manifest in the flesh." These 
were called Patripassians, because their doctrine 
seemed to involve the crucifixion and suffering 
of the Father. 

Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch from 260 to 
272, held that Christ was only a man, and therefore 
had no pre-existence, but, through the indwelling 
of the Logos, he progressively became divine. 

In its strife with these divergent thinkers the 
Church anticipated the great struggle with Arian- 
ism, which began early in the fourth century, about 
318, and continued till the end of the sixth century. 

Against the inroads of Gnosticism, and the disin- 
tegrating force of other forms of heresy, the early 
Church developed able defenders. If, in the ob- 
jective struggle with heathenism and under assaults 



33° From Jerusalem to Niccea* 

of fire and sword and savage beasts, she was passive 
and patient, exhausting persecution by her capacity 
for endurance, — in the subjective struggle with 
hostile intellectual forces, both pagan and nominal- 
Christian, the Church was active and aggressive, 
not remaining on the defensive, but pushing the con- 
test for the faith into every antagonistic camp. 

In the last lecture I spoke of the principal apolo- 
gists. Most of those were vigorous in assailing her- 
esy as well as in parrying heathen attack. Among 
the defenders of the faith from assaults within the 
Church in the second century none was more able 
and effective than Iren^euS. Born a little before 
140 A. D. in Asia Minor, where also he was edu- 
cated, he early went to Gaul, in which country 
the greater part of his life was spent He became 
a presbyter in the church in Lyons, and in 178, 
immediately after the frightful persecution in which 
the aged bishop Pothinus perished, he was called 
to the episcopate, which office he filled with such 
ability that he has been called " the greatest bishop 
of the second century, and the representative of 
the catholicity of the day." Of his writings only 
one complete work survives. This is, in part, an 
elaborate and, in the main, judicious, criticism of 
the various forms of Gnosticism which had devel- 
oped before the close of the century. His book 
has great value as showing the theological de- 
velopment in. the early Church. " Irenaeus," says 



Struggle within the Church. 331 

Harnack, " holds the same relation to the theology 
of the Greek Fathers that Tertullian does to the 
doctrinal system of the Church of the West. . . . 
It is from [him] also that we get the earliest form 
of the creed which afterwards, through the labor of 
councils and theologians, became what we now 
know as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed." 
He exerted also a strong irenical influence on the 
Eastern controversy. His death, possibly by 
martyrdom, took place not far from 202 A. D. 

In a peculiar sense Irenaeus stood as a repre- 
sentative of the apostolic tradition, and his defence 
of the simple basic elements of the Christian faith 
was of immense service to the Church. His criti- 
cism of Gnosticism, though not entirely adequate, 
nor always perfectly just, was motived by his calm 
yet intense loyalty to the fundamental facts and 
truths of the gospel. 

Of Gnosticism I have already said all that my 
time allows, and yet I cannot close without a few 
words as to the Gnostics, and as to the general 
significance of heresy in the early Church. 

The Gnostics have seldom, perhaps never, re- 
ceived entire justice at the hands of Christian inter- 
preters and critics. Their systems strike the 
Occidental mind as so unreal and grotesque, and 
their thought is so completely involved in extrava- 
gant allegory and colossal symbolism, that most 
students ,are repelled and quickly lose the patient 



332 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

and sympathetic temper which is necessary to a 
true understanding of the Gnostic aim. These men 
were not lunatics or mere wild dreamers. They 
were usually, at least often, serious and very earn- 
est men, in whose minds the various currents of 
Oriental pantheism and mysticism and Hellenic 
philosophical speculation met and mingled with 
the Hebrew idea of creation and the new Christian 
idea of redemption, and who out of these were 
seeking to fashion a complete philosophy of God, 
the universe, and human history. Their attempts 
seem to us to have issued, and, indeed, did issue in 
grotesque failures; but in these attempts certain 
great structural principles of theology at least germi- 
nally appeared. The entire significance of Christian 
thought as an historical development will scarcely 
be grasped by him who does not master the main 
elements of second-century Gnosticism. 

The treatment of heresy by the early Church was 
determined by its invincible instinct for the ele- 
mental Christian facts and truths, and its obstinate 
sense of the dependence of its integrity and life on 
the preservation of these. 

With the development of Christian dogma, heresy 
took on a different signification, and the spirit and at- 
titude of the Church towards heresy greatly changed. 
From the rise of the Trinitarian controversy on- 
ward we enter a new atmosphere as well as a new 
stage in the history of the Church, some apprehen- 
sion of which we shall get in the remaining two 
lectures. 



THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL OF 
ALEXANDRIA. 

THE Christian school of Alexandria, of which 
I am now to speak, must be distinguished 
from the " Alexandrian school " known in the 
history of literature and philosophy. The latter 
term designates, properly, two schools : one which, 
concerning itself chiefly with literature, took its 
rise early in the history of Alexandria, and passed 
into decadence before the beginning of the Chris- 
tian era; another, which sprang from the contact 
between Greek and Jewish thought, and concerned 
itself mainly with philosophy, was a later develop- 
ment. The latter school produced Neo-Platonism, 
which arose about the beginning of the third 
century, and was a combination of Greek and 
Roman metaphysics, modified both by the specula-, 
tions of Philo and by Christianity. Its chief repre- 
sentatives were Ammonius Saccas (who died in 
A. D. 241), Plotinus (d. 269), Porphyry (d. 305), 
Jamblicus (d. 330), and Proclus (d. 485). Inter- 
esting as this is, it can have at the present time 
no notice beyond a passing allusion. Preceding 
the distinct rise of Neo-Platonism was Jewish-Pla- 
tonism, which, beginning with Aristobulus about 



334 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

1 60 B. C., attained its final expression in Philo 
Judaeus. This, blended with Oriental theosophic 
and Christian elements, produced Gnosticism ; and 
both Jewish-Platonism and Gnosticism exerted a 
powerful influence on Alexandrine Christianity. 

Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in 
332 B. C, became, under the Ptolemies, the home 
of letters and the centre of intellectual life and 
scientific activity. The city was adorned with 
many magnificent buildings, such as the Museum, 
the Serapeum (the temple of Serapis, in which was 
an image of the tutelary god), and the Sebastion, 
all founded by royal munificence. Here in three 
great libraries, aggregating 700,000 volumes, were 
gathered all the wealth of ancient and contempo- 
rary literature and science. The city was thronged 
with professors, philosophers, and rhetoricians. 
Here gathered students and pleasure-seekers from 
all nations, — not only from Italy and Greece and 
Syria, but also from Ethiopia, Arabia, Bactria, 
Scythia, Persia, and even India. The Jews came 
hither in great numbers. Philo estimates that in 
his~ day there were quite one million Jews in 
Alexandria, and it is evident that they were not 
only more numerous, but -also more wealthy and 
influential here than in any other city of the 
Empire. Of the five districts of the city, they 
practically appropriated two, and occupied por- 
tions of the other three, while many inhabited the 
country districts round about. "They had their 
own senate and magistrates, who apportioned the 



Christian School of Alexandria, 335 

taxation and settled the disputes of the commu- 
nity." They enjoyed equal rights with the Greek 
burgesses, and possessed immunities which were 
denied even to the native Copts. 

As early, probably, as 250 B. c, under Ptolemy 
Philadelphus, who appears in history as a munifi- 
cent patron of literature, the translation of the 
Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek version of the 
Septuagint was begun, and it was substantially 
finished by 221 B. C. This work of translation by 
Alexandrian Jews was naturally undertaken to 
meet the wants of the Jewish population, which 
even at that time was large. All of these spoke 
Greek, while many of them were unfamiliar 
with Hebrew. A legendary account tells us that 
Ptolemy Philadelphus desired a copy of the Jewish 
Scriptures for his great library, and was advised 
to apply to the High-Priest at Jerusalem. In re- 
sponse to his application seventy-two scholars 
were sent, six for each of the twelve tribes, who 
were lodged in thirty-six cells on the island of 
Pharos, where, in seventy-two days, each scholar 
produced a separate version, and these versions; 
when they were compared, proved to be exactly 
alike. The story is interesting, but, of course, 
worthless. The fact, however, remains that the 
translation was made, and that the opportunity 
was given for that curious intellectual compound 
which is known as Jewish-Platonism. 1 

1 Wellhausen and others maintain that the Septuagint was both 
begun and completed at dates considerably later than those I 



336 From Jerusalem, to Niccza. 

Jewish-Platonism was the attempted combi- 
nation of the faith of the synagogue with the 
speculations of the Greek philosophers. The Jew- 
ish-Platonists, clinging with characteristic Jewish 
tenacity to their religious traditions and ideas, re- 
sorted to the most elaborate allegorical interpre- 
tation of the Old Testament, by which they were 
enabled to blend the doctrines of Plato and the Sto- 
ics with the teachings of Moses. Of Jewish-Platon- 
ism, Philo-Judaeus was the last and fullest exponent. 

The date of Philo's birth is unknown, but it 
must have been some time before the beginning 
of the Christian era, since he is spoken of as an 
old man in A. D. 39. His birthplace was probably 
Alexandria, and, according to Jerome, he was of 
priestly descent. The scion of a distinguished 
and wealthy family, he received the best education 
afforded by the times in the most intellectual city 
of the world. He became thoroughly acquainted 
with the Greek poets and philosophers, and was 
also deeply versed in the Hebrew Scriptures. 
Profoundly as he was affected by Greek specula- 
tion, he remained to the end an ardent believer in 
his ancestral religion, though his interpretation of 
that religion was such as to call forth the epi- 

have given ; but it has not been proved, I believe, that the larger 
part of the Septuagint was not in existence before the time of 
Aristobulus, 160 B.C. The precise date, however, does not affect 
the general proposition that the rise of Jewish-Platonism had 
its occasion in the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into 
Greek. 



Christian School of Alexandria. ?>Z7 

grammatic comment that Philo Platonizes or Plato 
Philonizes. Of his domestic life, almost nothing 
is known. It is said that he was married, though 
his treatment of woman in his writings might lead 
one to think otherwise. A pleasant story is told 
of his wife which we should like to think true. It 
is said that she appeared once without jewels in an 
assembly of noble women, and, when asked why 
she alone of them all wore no golden ornaments, 
she replied that a husband's virtue was sufficient 
ornament for his wife. 

The influence of Philonic-Platonism on Chris- 
tian teachers appears in their treatment of the 
Scriptures, their conception of the Logos, and 
their idea of knowledge {gnosis) in its relations 
to faith. This system also powerfully promoted, 
and to a great extent shaped, the development of 
Alexandrian Gnosticism. Amidst these influences 
arose the Christian Catechetical school in Alex- 
andria, as early at least as the last quarter of 
the second century. This school was founded for 
the purpose of giving religious instruction to the 
children of Christian parents, and preparing cate- 
chumens for baptism, but it soon broadened its 
scope so as to meet the special needs of adult 
converts who had been trained in pagan learning 
and were subject to the fascinations of Philonism, 
the Neo-Platonic philosophy, and Gnosticism. Its 
pupils were of both sexes. In such a school and 
amidst such surroundings, teachers were needed 



338 From Jerusalem to N ices a. 

who knew Greek religion and philosophy, and who 
understood, as did Clement, that " all culture is 
profitable, and particularly necessary is the study 
of Holy Scripture, to enable us to prove what we 
teach, and especially when our hearers come to 
us from the discipline of the Greeks." Under 
able and devoted masters this school sought to 
give, not merely instruction in the traditions of 
apostolic teaching, but a scientific exposition of 
Christianity which should be fundamentally in full 
accord with those traditions. The school was 
eagerly sought by educated pagans, as well as 
Christians, and by young men who desired to pre- 
pare themselves for service in the Church. It thus 
became, to some extent, a theological seminary. 
Here Christian theology, in the deeper sense of 
that term, was born. The Christian teachers had 
to meet a threefold opposition : the criticism of 
cultivated paganism, such as that of the acute 
and able Celsus ; the speculations of Gnosticism ; 
and the hostility of Christians who both feared and 
despised philosophy as a device of the devil to 
pervert men from the faith of the gospel. To the 
first it presented the reasonableness, elevation, and 
inclusiveness of the Christian philosophy. To the 
second it opposed the true Gnosis, which did not 
exclude faith but elaborated the rational contents 
of faith, and therefore subjectively authenticated 
the factual basis of Christianity. Faith, it held, was 
not a substitute for knowledge, but the organ of 



Christian School of Alexandria. 339 

knowledge. In the language of Clement, " Faith is, 
so to speak, the compendious knowledge of essen- 
tials ; Gnosis, the incontrovertible demonstration 
of the things received by faith, erected on the 
foundation of faith, through the doctrine of our 
Lord, whereby faith is raised to an irrefragable 
scientific knowledge." Moreover, knowledge is 
inseparable from life. 

" As is the doctrine," said Clement, " so also must 
be the life ; for the tree is known by its fruit, not by its 
blossoms or its leaves. The Gnosis comes, then, from 
the fruit and the life ; not from the doctrine and the 
blossom. For we say that the Gnosis is not merely doc- 
trine, but a divine science ; — it is that light, dawning 
within the soul from obedience to God's commands, 
which makes all things clear ; teaches man to know all 
that is contained in creation and in himself, and instructs 
him how to maintain fellowship with God ; for what the 
eye is to the body, such is the Gnosis to the mind." 

To the third form of opposition it disclosed the 
comprehensiveness of the gospel idea, and the 
necessity of knowledge and training in order to 
understand and expound the Scriptures ; besides, 
it is necessary to study philosophy in order to 
detect its sophistries, and so to defend the apos- 
tolic doctrine, and to commend Christianity to the 
heathen. 

" If the philosophy is unprofitable," said Clement, " yet 
the study of it is profitable, if there is profit to be derived 
from thoroughly demonstrating that it is an unprofitable 



34-0 From yerusalem to Niece a. 

thing. Then again, we cannot condemn the heathens by 
merely pronouncing sentence on their dogmas ; we must 
enter with them into the development of each in detail, 
until we compel them to acquiesce in our sentence ; for 
that sort of refutation wins the most confidence which is 
united with a thorough knowledge of the matter in hand." 

In further defence of the method of the school, 
Clement forcibly says : " We must offer to the 
Greeks, who seek after that which passes with them 
for wisdom, things of a kindred nature, so that 
they may come, as it may be expected they will, 
in the easiest way, through what is already familiar 
to them, to the belief of the truth. For I become 
all things to all men, says the apostle, that I may 
win all." 

The beginning of the school lies in some obscu- 
rity. It is said that Athenagoras was its first head. 
What is known of him I have already stated in 
the lecture on the Apologists. 1 The first teacher 
of whom we clearly know, and who is commonly 
considered the first master of the school, was 
PANT^ENUS. It is doubtful whether he was a Chris- 
tian by birth and training, or a convert from 
paganism. He probably was born in Sicily, since 
Clement calls him " the Sicilian bee." By some 
he is said to have been a Platonic eclectic, and it 
is apparent that he was thoroughly acquainted 
with the Stoic, Pythagorean, and Platonic ideas. 
1 See pages 246 ff. 



Christian School of Alexandria. 341 

He began his work in Alexandria in A. D. 180, and, 
according to Origen, was the first Christian teacher 
who availed himself of his heathen learning in the 
exposition of Christianity. This implies that he 
made a fuller and more systematic use of that 
learning than either Justin Martyr or Athenagoras, 
both of whom had brought the resources of their 
pagan culture into service in defending and propa- 
gating the gospel. Pantsenus' work as head of 
the school seems to have been interrupted, since 
Eusebius tells us that he went on an evangelistic 
tour to India. The Indians, on account of his 
fame as a teacher, desired to meet and hear him, 
and they sent a deputation with the request that 
he would visit them. This mission of Pantsenus 
indicates that already he had been ordained as a 
presbyter, although no mention is made of the 
fact. In India he found, and, according to 
Jerome's statement, brought back with him, a 
Gospel by St. Matthew in Hebrew. Pantaenus 
was learned, ardent, eloquent and large-minded. 
He may have left some writings, but all save a few 
fragments are lost. It is probable that these are 
rather the reports of oral teaching than literary 
productions. His personal influence was great, 
and it was by this, rather than by any literary 
activity, that he accomplished his work; though 
Eusebius says that in his writings he " interpreted 
the treasures of the divine dogmas," and Jerome 
adds that he left " many commentaries on the 



342 From Jerusalem to Niccsa. 

Scriptures." His work in the school ended in 
189, and he was succeeded by his pupil and fellow- 
teacher, Clement. The date of his death is un- 
known, but it falls somewhere between 193 and 211. 

The successor of Pantaenus was TiTUS Flavius 
CLEMENS, known in ecclesiastical literature as Cle- 
ment of Alexandria. His name, Flavius Clemens, 
suggests the name of Flavius Clemens who was 
martyred by Domitian in 96, and it has been in- 
ferred that he was a descendant of the consul. He 
was born somewhere between 150 and 160, and 
was an Athenian in training, if not by birth. Like 
his predecessor, he was learned in all the literature, 
science, philosophy, and mythology of the heathen. 
An ardent spirit, he wandered far and wide, in his 
early years, in search of truth. In his writings he 
mentions six illustrious Christian teachers under 
whom he studied. At last, in Egypt, he found 
Pantaenus, and with him found rest. Here, in 
Alexandria, he made his home, and probably for 
a time was a pupil of Pantaenus in the Catechetical 
school. He was ordained a presbyter, and, in 189, 
was appointed master of the school, in which for 
a little time he had been an assistant. Here he 
taught until 202 or 203, when he fled from a per- 
secution under Septimius Severus and never re- 
turned. We hear of him later in the company of 
one of his old pupils, Alexander, at that time a 
bishop in Cappadocia, and afterwards bishop of 



Christian School of Alexandria. 343 

Jerusalem, who was in prison on account of the 
faith. Alexander was much comforted by his 
presence, considering it providential. On the de- 
parture of Clement, Alexander charged him with 
a letter to the church in Antioch, congratulating 
them upon the election of Asclepiades to the 
episcopate, in which he thus speaks of Clement: 
" This epistle, my brethren, I have sent to you by 
Clement, the blessed presbyter, a man endued with 
all virtue, and well approved, whom you already 
know, and will learn still more to know; who also, 
coming hither by the providence and superinten- 
dence of the Lord, has confirmed and increased 
the Church of God." This is the last notice we 
have of Clement's movements; the date of his 
death is unknown, though it has been suggested 
variously as 213 and 220. Among his pupils were 
Origen and the Alexander above mentioned, and, 
perhaps, also Hippolytus. 

Of the works of Clement, Eusebius and Jerome 
enumerate ten, though many others are mentioned 
by Clement himself as already written, or to be 
written. Of the ten referred to, two are entirely 
lost, four survive in fragments, and four remain 
to us practically entire. Of the extant works, 
the most important are, " The Exhortation to 
the Greeks," "The Instructor," and "The Mis- 
cellanies " (Sr/jtwyLtaTet?, which means " coverlet," 
then, " patchwork," of which coverlets often were 
made). The fourth extant work, entitled "Who 



344 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

is the Rich Man that is Saved?" is a study, in 
the form of a popular address, of the incident 
related in Mark's Gospel, x. 17-22. Its teaching 
is characterized as " simple, eloquent, and just." 
It closes with the story of St. John and the young 
robber which Eusebius, quoting from Clement, 
incorporated in his History. It is in substance 
as follows : — 

St. John, after the death of Domitian, returned 
from the isle of Patmos to Ephesus. From this 
city he was accustomed to go out into the neigh- 
boring regions to appoint bishops, to institute new 
churches, and to render other apostolic services. 
In one city, after having ordained a bishop, he 
committed to his care " a youth of fine stature, 
graceful countenance, and ardent mind," saying, 
" Him I commend to you with all earnestness, 
in the presence of the Church and of Christ." 
The bishop promised to care for him with all 
diligence, and St. John returned to Ephesus. The 
youth was cherished, educated, disciplined, and 
finally baptized. Then his guardian somewhat 
relaxed his care, and the youth fell under the 
influence of " certain idle, dissolute fellows," who 
led him first into dissipation, and then by degrees 
into crime. Going from bad to worse, the young 
man at last committed a crime so grave as to in- 
volve for him and his associates, in case they were 
caught, the punishment of death. Thereupon he 
fled from his home, and, having exceeded his 



Christian School of Alexandria. 345 

associates in daring, he was chosen by them as 
captain, and he formed them into a band of rob- 
bers who preyed upon the surrounding country. 
After a time the apostle returned and claimed the 
youth of the bishop to whom he had committed 
him as his "deposit." The bishop, now an old 
man, " groaning heavily and also weeping, said, 
' He is dead.' ' How, and what death? ' 'He is 
dead to God/ said he, ' he has turned out wicked 
and abandoned, and at last a robber; and now, 
instead of the Church, he has beset the mountain 
with a band like himself.' " At this, the apostle, 
with great lamentation, called for a horse and 
guide, and rode away in search of the prodigal. 
Soon he was captured by an outpost of the ban- 
dits. He demanded to be taken to their leader. 
As the latter saw the aged St. John approaching 
he turned and fled ; but the apostle, forgetful of 
his age, pursued him, crying : " Why dost thou 
fly, my son, from me, thy father, — thy defence- 
less, aged father? Have compassion on me, my 
son; fear not. Thou still hast hope of life. I 
will intercede with Christ for thee. Should it be 
necessary, I will cheerfully suffer death for thee, 
as did Christ for us. I will give my life for thine. 
Stay; believe Christ hath sent me." At this the 
robber stopped, threw away his weapons, and then, 
trembling and bursting into tears, he caught the 
apostle in his arms. Finally, yielding to St. John's 
entreaties, and hearing his prayers to Christ on his 



346 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

behalf, the robber abandoned his companions and 
returned with him to his home, where he was at 
last restored to the church, " a powerful example 
of true repentance, and ... a trophy of a visible 
resurrection." 

"The Exhortation to the Greeks," an apologetic 
work % in twelve chapters, was designed to win 
pagans to the Christian faith. It is in Clement's 
best literary style, and abounds in passages of 
great force and beauty. In the very first chapter 
the author eloquently appeals to his readers to 
turn from the foolish fables of heathenism, and 
to listen to the invitations of the Divine Word. 
He begins by citing the fable of Eunomos the 
Locrian, who, while playing the Pythic dirge, 
broke a string of his lyre, whereupon a " grass- 
hopper sprang on the neck of the instrument, and 
sang on it as on a branch ; and the minstrel, adapt- 
ing his strain to the grasshopper's song, made up 
for the want of the missing string." " How," asks 
Clement, " have you believed vain fables, and sup- 
posed animals to be charmed by music; while 
Truth's shining face alone, as would seem, appears 
to you disguised, and is looked on with incredu- 
lous eyes? " Let " raving poets, now quite intoxi- 
cated," he exclaims, be crowned with ivy, and let 
the whole frenzied rabble, with the satyrs and the 
rest of the demon crew, be confined to Cithaeron 
and Helicon. " But let us bring from above out 
of Heaven, Truth, with Wisdom in all its bright- 



Christian School of Alexandria. 347 

ness, and the sacred prophetic choir, down to the 
holy mount of God; and let Truth, darting her 
light to the most distant points, cast her rays all 
around on those that are involved in darkness, and 
deliver men from delusion, stretching out her very 
strong right hand, which is wisdom, for their salva- 
tion. And raising their eyes, and looking above, 
let them abandon Helicon and Cithaeron, and take 
up their abode in Sion." The heathen beguilers 
of men lead them only to destruction, but the 
Lord, " the celestial Word," draws them to salva- 
tion. "The Lord pities, instructs, exhorts, admon- 
ishes, saves, shields, and of His bounty promises 
us the kingdom of heaven as a reward for learning ; 
and the only advantage He reaps is, that we are 
saved. For wickedness feeds on men's destruction ; 
but Truth, like the bee, harming nothing, delights 
only in the salvation of men." 

Of the Saviour he says: He "has many tones of 
voice, and many methods for the salvation of men ; 
by threatening He admonishes, by upbraiding He 
converts, by bewailing He pities, by the voice of 
song He cheers." 

Through page after page of graceful writing, 
loaded with classic allusion and illustration, he 
vividly exposes the licentiousness and absurdity 
of the heathen rites, showing a familiarity with 
them which indicates that he himself, perhaps, 
had been initiated into " the mysteries." After 
setting forth the cruelty of the sacrifices offered 



348 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

to the gods, and the shamefulness of the images 
by which they were worshipped, he cites the 
opinions of the philosophers and poets respecting 
the true God, quoting from Plato : " Around the 
King of all are all things, and He is the cause of 
all good things," and asking : " Who, then, is the 
King of all? God, who is the measure of the 
truth of all existence," — quoting from Antisthenes: 
" God is not like to any ; wherefore no one can 
know him from an image; " and from Xenophon : 
" How great and powerful He is who moves all 
things, and is Himself at rest, is 'manifest; but 
what He is in form is not revealed ; " and from 
the Pythagoreans: "God is one; and He is not, as 
some suppose, outside of this frame of things, but 
within it; but, in all the entireness of His being, 
is in the whole circle of existence, surveying all 
nature, and blending in harmonious union the 
whole, — the author of all His own forces and 
works, the giver of light in heaven, and Father 
of all, the mind and vital power of the whole 
world, the mover of all things." 

The book closes with an appeal to his readers 
to abandon their ancient errors and to listen to 
Christ. I quote a single characteristic passage : 

"Come, O madman, not leaning on the thyrsus, not 
crowned with ivy : throw away the mitre, throw away the 
fawn-skin ; come to thy senses. I will show thee the 
Word, and the mysteries of the Word, expounding them 
after thine own fashion. This is the mountain beloved of 



Christian School of Alexandria. 349 

God, not the subject of tragedies like Cithseron, but con- 
secrated to dramas of the truth, — a mount of sobriety, 
shaded with forests of purity ; and there revel on it not 
the Msenades, the sisters of Semele, who was struck by 
the thunderbolt, practising in their initiatory rites unholy 
division of flesh, but the daughters of God. the fair lambs, 
who celebrate the holy rites of the Word, raising a sober 
choral dance. The righteous are the chorus ; the music 
is a hymn of the King of the universe. The maidens 
strike the lyre, the angels praise, the prophets speak ; the 
sound of music issues forth, they run and pursue the jubi- 
lant band ; those that are called make haste, eagerly 
desiring to receive the Father." 

There are in this writing, judged from our point 
of view, defects both of taste and of logic, but on 
the whole it is well suited to its purpose, which 
was to show the essential superiority of Christianity 
over the religions and philosophies of heathenism, 
and to persuade the heathen to accept the lofty 
teaching and pure morality of the Divine Word. 

" The Instructor," or Tutor (JJatSaycoyo^'), a 
work in three books, containing in all thirty-eight 
chapters, is a manual for the instruction and train- 
ing of Christians who had been rescued from the 
pollutions of heathenism. Its aim is practical 
rather than theoretical, and, though it contem- 
plates always the knowledge (gnosis') which is 
essential to a completely developed Christian life, 
it sets forth in minute detail the morals and man- 
ners that are proper for a Christian. The first 



350 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

book is entirely taken up with the exposition of 
the office, method and character of the Instructor, 
who " is the holy God Jesus, the Word, who is 
the guide of all humanity. The loving God Him- 
self is our Instructor." The remaining two books 
treat of a great variety of subjects: of eating, 
drinking, clothes, ornaments, bathing, domestic 
and marital relations, exercise, amusements, con- 
duct in church and out of church, and a multitude 
of other matters. The treatise ends with a prayer 
to the Instructor, and a hymn to Christ' the Saviour. 
A literal translation of part of the hymn I have 
already given in the second lecture. 1 

I quote at random some specimens of Clement's 
counsel. On Eating he says : — 

" We must guard against those articles of food which 
persuade us to eat when we are not hungry, bewitching 
the appetite. For is there not within a temperate simpli- 
city a wholesome variety of eatables ? Bulbs, 2 olives, cer- 
tain herbs, milk, cheese, fruits, all kinds of cooked food 
without sauces ; and if flesh is wanted, let roast rather 
than boiled be set down." 

The reason he gives for using roast, rather than 
boiled flesh, is, that Jesus, after His resurrection, 
when He asked for something to eat, received from 
His disciples " a piece of broiled fish." In the 
chapter on Drinking, after derisively condemning 

1 See page 83. 

2 A bulbous wild root, much esteemed in Greece. 



Christian School of Alexandria. 351 

the excessive luxury of which many rich are guilty, 
he pithily says : — 

" The best riches is poverty of desires ; and the true 
magnanimity is not to be proud of wealth, but to despise 
it. Boasting about one's plate is utterly base. For it is 
plainly wrong to care much about what any one who likes 
may buy from the market. But wisdom is not bought 
with coin of earth, nor is it sold in the market-place, but 
in heaven. And it is sold for true coin, the immortal 
Word, the regal gold." 

In the chapter on Laughter he says : — 

" Pleasantry is allowable, not waggery. Besides, even 
laughter must be kept in check ; for when given vent to 
in the right manner it indicates orderliness, but when it 
issues differently it shows a want of restraint. For, in a 
word, whatever things are natural to men we must not 
eradicate from them, but rather impose on them limits 
and suitable times. For man is not to laugh on all occa- 
sions because he is a laughing animal, any more than the 
horse neighs on all occasions because he is a neighing 
animal." 

Concerning the Use of the Tongue he says : — 

" We ought not to speak long or much, nor ought we 
to speak frivolously. Nor must we converse rapidly and 
rashly. For the voice itself, so to speak, ought to receive 
its just dues ; and those who are vociferous and clamor- 
ous ought to be silenced. ... It is with triflers as with 
old shoes : all the rest is worn away by evil ; the tongue 
only is left for destruction." 



352 From Jerusalem to Niece a, 

On Clothes he gives his judgment that the 
covering ought — 

" to show that which is covered to be better than itself, as 
the image is superior to the temple, the soul to the body, 
and the body to the clothes. But now, quite the contrary, 
the body of these ladies, if sold, would never fetch a thou- 
sand Attic drachmas. Buying, as they do, a single dress 
at the price of ten thousand talents, they prove them- 
selves to be of less use and less value than cloth. Why 
in the world do you seek after what is rare and costly, in 
preference to what is at hand and cheap ? It is because 
you know not what is really beautiful, what is really good, 
and seek with eagerness shows instead of realities, from 
fools who, like people out of their wits, imagine black to 
be white." 

In a chapter devoted to reproof of excessive 
fondness for jewels and gold ornaments, he gives 
a long and curious list of the various ornaments in 
use, and then exclaims : " I am weary and vexed 
at enumerating the multitude of ornaments ; and I 
am compelled to wonder how those who bear such 
a burden are not worried to death. Oh, foolish 
trouble ! Oh, silly craze for display ! They squan- 
der meretricious wealth on what is disgraceful ; 
and in their love for ostentation disfigure God's 
gifts." He tells the story that " Apelles, the 
painter, seeing one of his pupils painting a figure 
loaded with gold color to represent Helen, said to 
him, ' Boy, being incapable of painting her beau- 
tiful, you have made her rich.' " Concerning ear- 
rings, he says : — 



Christian School of Alexandria. 353 

Let not ears " be pierced, contrary to nature, in order 
to attach to them earrings and ear-drops. For it is not 
right to force nature against her wishes. Nor could 
there be any better ornament for the ears than true 
instruction, which finds its way naturally into the pas- 
sages of hearing. And eyes, anointed by the Word, and 
ears pierced for perception, make a man a hearer and a 
contemplator of divine and sacred things, the Word truly 
exhibiting the true beauty ' which eye hath not seen nor 
ear heard before.' " 

I leave the " Instructor " with a quotation from the 
chapter on Frugality : — 

" A fair provision for the journey to heaven is theirs 
who bear frugality with chaste gravity. And as the foot 
is the measure of the shoe, so also is the body of what 
each individual possesses. But that which is superfluous, 
what they call ornaments and the furniture of the rich, is 
a burden, not an ornament to the body. He who climbs 
to the heavens by force, must carry with him the fair staff 
of beneficence, and attain to the true rest by communicat- 
ing to those who are in distress." 

" The Miscellanies," the most extensive and the 
most significant of Clement's works, has come 
down to us in seven books. There probably 
were no more, though Eusebius speaks of eight. 
What is printed as a fragment of the eighth book 
seems to be matter introductory to a work on 
logic. The beginning of the first book is want- 
ing. This work of Clement's, though it is not in 
any sense a systematic treatise, and was not meant 

23 



354 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

by its author to be such, has profoundly influenced 
many Christian thinkers. It is still of very great 
value, both because it contains important materials 
for the history of Christian thought, and its rela- 
tions to Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, and be- 
cause in it are found, expressly or by implication, 
every great principle of the Greek, as contrasted 
with the Latin, theology. 

Clement was thoroughly a lover of truth, and 
he had that catholicity of mind which led him 
to study, and enabled him in some real sense 
to understand, all systems of contemporaneous 
thought Of him it justly has been said that he 
was the first " to bring all the culture of the 
Greeks and all the speculations of Christian here- 
tics to bear on the exposition of Christian truth." 
In a time of great intellectual commotion, when, 
in its struggle with diverting or antagonistic forces 
both within and without the Church, the Christian 
mind was beginning to shape a theology that 
should fitly embody the contents of its faith and 
its interpretation of the world, Clement grasped 
the truth that Christianity is legitimately the heir 
of all the past, and possesses the key to the inter- 
pretation of the future. " Sixteen centuries," says 
Westcott, " have confirmed the truth of his princi- 
ple, and left its application still fruitful." 

Clement, unlike Tertullian and Hermias, who 
utterly rejected the speculations of the Greek 
philosophers as evil both in origin and in in- 



Christian School of Alexandria. 355 

fluence, conceived of philosophy as a divinely 
ordained preparation of the Greeks for faith in 
Christ, as the law of Moses was a similar prepa- 
ration of the Hebrews. While thus hospitable 
toward Greek philosophy, he assumed an attitude 
toward Gnosticism that gave him an enormous 
polemic advantage in dealing with Gnostic the- 
ories. In opposition to the false Gnosis of the 
Gnostics, whose views he criticised with acuteness 
and vigor, but without heat or bitterness, he set 
forth a true Christian Gnosis, and thus furnished 
at once the answer and the antidote to the specula- 
tions of Basilides, Valentinus, and Marcion. Ac- 
cording to Clement the true Gnostic is not merely 
the knower, but the believer, who, through his 
faith, has become the knower. 

" Knowledge," he says, " a perfecting of man as man, 
is consummated by acquaintance with divine things, in 
character, life, and word, accordant and conformable to 
itself and to the divine Word. For by it faith is per- 
fected, inasmuch as it is solely by it that the believer 
becomes perfect. Faith is an internal good, and without 
searching for God, confesses His existence, and glorifies 
Him as existent. Whence by starting from this faith, and 
being developed by it, through the grace of God, the 
knowledge respecting Him is to be acquired as far as 
possible. " 

In another place he thus, more explicitly, sets 
forth his idea of the intimate relation of faith to 
knowledge : — 



356 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

"Faith is then, so to speak, a comprehensive knowl- 
edge of the essentials ; and knowledge is the strong and 
sure demonstration of what is received by faith, built 
upon faith by the Lord's teaching, conveying [the soul] 
on to infallibility, science, and comprehension. And, in 
my view, the first saving change is that from heathenism 
to faith, as I said before ; and the second, that from faith 
to knowledge. And the latter, terminating in love, there- 
after gives the loving to the loved, that which knows to 
that which is known. And, perchance, such an one has 
already attained the condition ' of being equal to the 
angels.' " 

That which, perhaps, is most characteristic of 
Clement's function as an interpreter of the Chris- 
tian faith is his thought of the Incarnation, — the 
indwelling Word, — " as the crown and consum- 
mation of the whole history of the world." With 
his idea of the Incarnation, or the immanent Word, 
was inseparably joined his idea of the world as 
belonging, not to the powers of darkness, but to 
God, and of human nature as a product of the 
divine wisdom and love. He rejects entirely the 
Gnostic ideas with respect to the origin and nature 
of evil, and, indeed, does not concern himself spe- 
cially with these questions. He knows nothing of 
that doctrine of the fall of man in Adam which 
fills so prominent a place in the later Latin the- 
ology, and, by his principle of the freedom of 
the will, he escapes the fatalism of Gnostic and 
Manichaean thought, into which Augustine, de- 



Christian School of Alexandria. 357 

spite his conversion from Manichaeism, fell, or, per- 
haps we should rather say, from which he never 
entirely freed himself. 

Of "total depravity" Clement knows nothing, 
though he recognizes a moral inability which 
makes necessary both the quickening and the 
discipline of the soul by the Divine Spirit. 

" Though men's actions," he says, u are ten thousand 
in number, the sources of all sin are but two, ignorance 
and inability. And both depend on ourselves ; inasmuch 
as we will not learn, nor, on the other hand, restrain lust. 
And of these, the one is that, in consequence of which 
people do not judge well, and the other, that in con- 
sequence of which they cannot comply with right judg- 
ments. For neither will one who is deluded in his mind 
be able to act rightly, though perfectly able to do what 
he knows ; nor, though capable of judging what is requi- 
site, will he keep himself free from blame, if destitute of 
power in action. Consequently, then, there are assigned 
two kinds of correction applicable to both kinds of sin : 
for the one, knowledge and clear demonstration from the 
testimony of the Scriptures ; and for the other, the train- 
ing according to the Word, which is regulated by the 
discipline of faith and fear. And both develop into 
perfect love." 

Punishment he regards as always remedial, 
never vindictive. God does not punish, he says, 
" for punishment is retaliation for evil. He chas- 
tises, however, for good to those who are chastised, 
collectively and individually." 



358 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

Salvation, according to Clement, is a spiritually 
educative process, carried on within man by the 
indwelling Word. It is not, says Professor Allen, 
" a physical process, but an ethical growth, 
through union with God ; divine knowledge is 
no mere speculative insight into the origin of 
things, but an ever-growing perception of the true 
character of God, as it is revealed in Christ." 
Clement's idea of salvation, therefore, excludes 
the element of expiation. He finds no opposition 
between divine justice and divine love, as did Mar- 
cion ; there is therefore no necessity for expiation. 
The Incarnation is the real and only atonement, 
that is, the reconciliation of the world to Himself 
by the immanent God. 

Clement's attitude toward asceticism was deter- 
mined by his view of the world as God's world, 
and of the body as His temple. He therefore 
taught self-control, not self-annihilation ; mortifica- 
tion of evil desires, not of the flesh. He says : — 

" Those who run down created existence and vilify the 
body are wrong ; not considering that the frame of man 
was formed erect for the contemplation of heaven, and 
that the organization of the senses tends to knowledge ; 
and that the members and parts are arranged for good, 
not for pleasure. Whence this abode becomes receptive 
of the soul which is most precious to God ; and is dig- 
nified with the Holy Spirit through the sanctification 
of soul and body, perfected with the perfection of the 
Saviour." 



Christian School of Alexandria. 359 

He speaks in one place of self-restraint as " God's 
greatest gift," but this self-restraint is always ra- 
tional, and is motived by a love of righteousness 
which arises through the perception of the truth. 
" Virtue," he says, " is will in conformity to God 
and Christ in life, rightly adjusted to life everlast- 
ing. For the life of Christians, in which we are 
now trained, is a system of reasonable actions, — 
that is, of those things taught by the Word, — an 
unfailing energy which we have called faith." 

With his view of God, and man, and the Incarna- 
tion, and faith, and the divine discipline, Clement 
consistently believed in the ultimate salvation of 
all men. I cannot take time now to enter at 
length into an exposition of Clement's thought on 
the outcome of the long drama of human history ; 
but it is thus justly and happily indicated by 
Professor Allen : " His belief in the inherent 
worth of the individual soul, as constituted after 
the divine image, would not allow him to succumb 
to the thought that man was created practically 
an animal only, with the possibility attached of 
some time receiving an immortal spirit in virtue 
of his own exertions ; or, on the other hand, that 
any soul could continue forever to resist the force 
of redeeming love. Somehow and somewhere, in 
the long run of ages, that love must prove might- 
ier than sin and death, and vindicate its power in 
one universal triumph." 

The largeness of Clement's thought and the 



360 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

breadth of his outlook upon the world and upon 
the future justify the application to him by Dr. 
Bigg of the epithet " Pauline." Certainly down 
to the time of Clement very little trace of real 
Paulinism can be found except, indeed, among 
the Gnostics. 

Clement's successor was Origen, the most 
famous name in the Christian Church antecedent to 
Augustine, and the greatest of the early teachers. 
His full name was Origenes Adamantius. He was 
born in Alexandria, of Christian parents, in 185 
A. D. His name, which means " born of Or," or 
Horus, the Egyptian god of light, suggests that he 
was by race an Egyptian, or Copt, though his 
father bore the Greek name Leonides. He was the 
eldest of seven sons. His father, who was a teacher 
of rhetoric, gave him a liberal education in Greek 
learning and, especially, in the Christian Scriptures, 
portions of which he required him daily to commit 
to memory. The boy was an eager student, with 
an alert and inquiring mind, and he often put 
troubling questions to his father. This question- 
ing spirit was sometimes rebuked, but at night the 
father would go, and, uncovering his boy as he slept, 
would reverently kiss his breast, " as a shrine con- 
secrated by the divine Spirit," and thank God for 
giving him such a son. 

Very early Origen entered the Catechetical 
school, where he imbibed the intellectual spirit of 



Christian School of Alexandria. 361 

his great master, Clement. When he was seventeen 
years old, in 202, his father, Leonides, became a 
victim of the persecution under Septimius Severus, 
and was thrown into prison. Origen ardently 
desired to share his fate. His mother implored 
him not to rush upon martyrdom, but, seeing him 
resolved upon his course, she hid his clothes, and 
so compelled him to remain in the house. The 
boy wrote his father a letter, encouraging him to 
stand fast in his faith, and saying, " Take heed, 
father, not to change thy mind on account of us." 
Leonides was put to death, his property was con- 
fiscated, and Origen was left to support his mother 
and his six younger brothers. For a time he re- 
ceived help from a wealthy lady of Alexandria, 
who took him in. This lady had as her chaplain a 
certain Paul of Antioch, whom she had adopted as 
a son. Paul was, as Eusebius tells us, " an advo- 
cate of the heretics then existing at Alexandria ; " 
that is, he was a Gnostic. Origen, who abomi- 
nated Paul's heretical doctrines, was uncomfortable 
in what he felt to be a compromising situation, and 
he resolved to leave it and support himself and his 
family by teaching grammar. He immediately 
acted on his resolution, and soon was very suc- 
cessful in his vocation, attracting to himself many 
disciples, among whom were Plutarch, soon after- 
wards a martyr to the faith, and Heraclas, who 
later became bishop of Alexandria. During that 
troublous time, while persecution was raging in the 



362 From Jerusalem, to N ices a. 

city, he fearlessly gave aid and comfort to the per- 
secuted, whom he publicly saluted with the kiss of 
peace. The multitude, infuriated by his boldness, 
sought to put him to death, and he escaped only 
by fleeing from house to house. 

When Origen was scarcely eighteen years old, 
Demetrius, at that time bishop of Alexandria, who, 
though he was a stern and unlettered man, had ob- 
served and appreciated the abilities of the young 
student, called him to the head of the Catechetical 
school. Previous to this time he had accumulated, 
chiefly by his own labor, a considerable library, 
having transcribed with his own hand many copies 
of classic and other manuscripts. Refusing all 
remuneration for his teaching, he sold his library 
for an income of four obols (twelve cents) a day, 
on which he lived for many years, steadily declin- 
ing the contributions offered by' his friends. He 
devoted himself to a life of rigorous self-denial and 
toil. He had early exhibited a tendency towards 
a passionate asceticism ; now he gave himself to 
teaching by day and to study by night, satisfied 
himself with one coat, fasted much and took his 
little sleep on the ground. 1 For twelve or thirteen 
1 There seems to be no sufficient reason for doubt- 
ing the generally received opinion that, at this time, 
Origen, with sincere but mistaken zeal, applied to himself 
literally the words of Christ in Matthew xix. 12. This act r 
according to the ecclesiastical ideas of the times, disqualified 
him for clerical office, and it partly explains the persistence 
of Demetrius in accomplishing his degradation from the pres- 



Christian School of Alexandria. 363 

years he labored with unflagging zeal and great 
success as head of the school. 

About 213, during the episcopate of Zephyrinus 
in Rome (202-217), he visited the capital of 
the empire. On his return to his work in the 
school he transferred the care of the younger 
pupils, the catechumens, to Heraclas, whom he 
chose as an assistant, and devoted himself to the 
advanced pupils and to Biblical study. Being 
hampered, in his controversy with the Jews, by 
his ignorance of Hebrew, he resolved to learn that 
language, which he did, though he never attained 
great proficiency in it. He also sought a fuller 
acquaintance with Grecian literature and with the 
current phases of philosophic thought, and for this 
purpose attended the lectures of Ammonius Saccas, 
the reputed founder of the Neo-Platonic school, 
of which afterwards the lamented Hypatia was so 
beautiful and so distinguished a representative. 
Origen's fame spread far and wide. He travelled 
much, enlightening Christians and confirming 
them in the martyr spirit, and also confuting 
heretics, in which he generally was successful. 

About this time his reputation had grown so 
great that the Roman governor of the province 
of Arabia requested Demetrius and the governor 
of Egypt to send Origen to him. 

byterate. In his later life Origen developed more rational 
views of Scripture teaching, and probably regretted his 
youthful rashness. 



364 From Jerusalem to Nic&a. 

In 215 Caracalla was severely lampooned in 
Alexandria for the murder of his brother Geta. In 
an outburst of fury the half-mad emperor began to 
take bloody reprisals of the Alexandrians. Origen 
left the city and went to Palestine, where he 
visited his friend, Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, 
and then to Caesarea, where he was welcomed 
by another friend, Theoctistus. These two men 
so admired Origen that they requested him to 
expound the Scriptures publicly in their pres- 
ence ; which he did, though he was not ordained. 
Demetrius, who was very much of an ecclesiastic, 
hearing of this, was indignant that a layman should 
speak in public before bishops, and promptly re- 
called Origen. It was probably about this time 
that, in response to an invitation from Julia 
Mammaea, the mother of Alexander Severus, he 
paid a visit to the empress-dowager, who seems to 
have been sojourning then in Alexandria. As an 
indication of the honor in which he was held, it is 
recorded that he was attended by a military escort 
furnished by his imperial hostess. 

Not long after his return to Alexandria Origen 
entered upon a new form of work, namely, the 
written exposition of the Scriptures. Up to this 
time he had written very little, but a wealthy 
Alexandrian, by name Ambrosius, whom he had 
converted from Valentinian Gnosticism, urged him 
to write, and supplied him with the necessary money 
for the transcription and publication of his works. 



Christian School of Alexandria. 365 

This friend provided him with seven stenographers 
and the same number of caligraphists. Eusebius 
says that Ambrosius furnished " the most ample 
supplies of all necessary means; for he [that is, 
Origen] had more than seven amanuenses, when 
he dictated, who relieved each other at appointed 
times. He had not fewer copyists, as also girls, 
who were well exercised in more elegant writing. 
For all which, Ambrose furnished an abundant 
supply of all the necessary expense." Ambrose 
affords an example that is quite worthy of imita- 
tion by wealthy laymen in our own day. 

Owing to the increasing proficiency of Heraclas, 
Origen was now able to withdraw himself in a large 
measure from the charge of the school, and to 
devote himself to his literary occupations. His 
writings, says Westcott, " marked him out more 
decisively than before as a teacher in the Church 
even more than in the school." His work, how- 
ever, raised new difficulties in his path. His " First 
Principles," continues Westcott, " made an epoch in 
Christian speculation, as the ' Commentary on St. 
John ' made an epoch in Christian interpretation." 

Demetrius began to be jealous of the growing 
power and reputation of this layman, and Origen's 
position began to grow uncomfortable. About 226 
or 228, an opportunity came to change, for a time 
at least, his relations. He was invited to Greece to 
aid in settling some troubles arising from heresies, 
and, being furnished with u commendatory letters," 



366 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

he set out on his journey, passing, on his way, 
through Palestine, where he paused for a time. 
While he was there, Alexander of Jerusalem and 
Theoctistus of Csesarea consecrated him as a pres- 
byter. He then continued his journey to Greece, 
visiting Ephesus on the way, and spent some time 
at Athens. About 230 he returned to find Deme- 
trius in a rage, and a storm of ecclesiastical repro- 
bation ready to burst upon him. A synod of 
Egyptian bishops, in which also the presbyters 
under Demetrius were given seats, pronounced 
Origen unworthy of the office of catechist, prob- 
ably because of his violation of ecclesiastical 
discipline, and excommunicated him from the 
church in Alexandria ; but it did not venture to 
depose him from the dignity of presbyter. Deme- 
trius was not satisfied ; he called a second synod of 
bishops and degraded Origen from the office of 
presbyter, and sent an encyclical letter announcing 
the action of the synod. 1 The churches in Pales- 
tine, Phoenicia, Arabia, and Achaia disregarded the 
letter and the episcopal action. In Alexandria, the 
hierarchical party, which was now dominant, had 
long been opposed to Origen. He was too large 
and too free a man to be enclosed within the lines 
of their conception of a Christian teacher. It is 
significant that the church in Rome approved the 
action of Demetrius. 

Previous to the second synod Origen saw that he 

1 See note on page 362. 



Christian School of Alexandria. 367 

must retire before the storm, and he turned over the 
entire charge of the Catechetical school to Heraclas 
and withdrew from Alexandria, never to return. 
He went to Caesarea, where he " found ungrudging 
sympathy and help for his manifold labors." Says 
Westcott: "Alexander of Jerusalem and Theoctis- 
tus of Caesarea remained devoted to him ; and Fir- 
milian of Caesarea in Cappadocia was no less zealous 
in seeking his instruction. Ambrosius was with 
him to stimulate and maintain his literary efforts." 
Here he established a school which almost rivalled 
in fame the school in Alexandria, and in which he 
labored for more than twenty years. For a little 
time between 235 and 237 his labors were inter- 
rupted by the persecution which broke out under 
Maximin, and he was obliged to go into conceal- 
ment in Cappadocia, at least during part of the 
time, in the house of Juliana, a Christian lady who 
was the heiress of Symmachus, the Ebionite trans- 
lator of the Septuagint. While here he wrote his 
" Exhortation to Martyrdom " for the consolation 
of Ambrosius and Protoctetus, who were suffering 
imprisonment on account of the faith. On the 
death of Maximin these friends were liberated, and 
Origen returned to Caesarea. 

Of Origen's work as a teacher in Caesarea, an 
interesting and eloquent account was given by his 
most distinguished pupil, Gregory Thaumaturgus, 
in a farewell address which the latter delivered on 
the occasion of his final departure from the school. 



368 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

It shows, with touching devotion, the way in 
which the master had turned him. from his purpose 
to study Roman law, and had led him into the 
service of the gospel, kindling in his breast a love 
for the Holy Word. Origen now devoted himself 
mainly to exegetical studies. His labors were 
unremitting. In one of his letters he says : — 

" The work of correction leaves us no time for supper, 
or, after supper, for exercise and repose. Even at these 
times we are compelled to debate questions of interpreta- 
tion and to emend MSS. Even the night cannot be given 
up altogether to the needful refreshment of sleep, for our 
discussions extend far into the evening. I say nothing 
about our morning labor, continued from dawn to the 
ninth or tenth hour ; for all earnest students devote this 
time to study of the Scriptures and reading." 

Although confining himself for the most part to 
his labors in Caesarea, Origen made an occasional 
visit to other places, —to Jerusalem, to Jericho, 
and to Sidon. He also visited Athens, and Bostra 
in Arabia. In the latter place he restored Beryl- 
lus, bishop of Bostra, from errors into which he 
had fallen on the subject of the Incarnation. He 
had now attained the full measure of his powers. 
From about 245, when he was sixty years old, he 
allowed his oral expositions of Scripture to be 
taken down in shorthand, and during the succeed- 
ing four or five years he produced most of the hom- 
ilies which have been preserved. His works pro- 



Christian School of A lexandria. 369 

duced during this period show the greatest sobriety 
and ripest maturity of his mind, such as we see in 
the " Commentary on St. Matthew " and the writing 
entitled "Against Celsus." In 250 the persecution 
under Decius broke out, and many Christians in 
Syria were victims. Alexander of Jerusalem was 
thrown into prison, where he died. Origen was ar- 
rested and taken to Tyre, where he was subjected to 
the torture of chains, the iron collar, and the rack. 
His constancy was unshaken through all his suf- 
ferings. On the death of Decius, in 251, he was 
set free, but his health was broken by the hard- 
ships through which he had passed, and by his 
many years of incessant labor, and in 254, at the 
age of -sixty-nine, he died at Tyre, where he was 
buried. When, later, a cathedral, named after the 
Holy Sepulchre, was built there, his body was 
enclosed in the wall behind the high altar, and his 
tomb was honored as long as the city survived. 
Long after the city was destroyed by the Saracens, 
his name was still remembered, and, even in mod- 
ern times, the tradition of his greatness still lingers 
amidst the ruins. " It is said that the natives 
point out the spot where ' Oriunus ' lies under a 
vault, the relic of an ancient church now covered 
by their huts." 

In his personal character Origen was a singu- 
larly pure and noble man ; though the inheritor of a 
fiery and passionate nature, he was meek and patient 
under suffering and opposition. Unlike Tertullian, 

24 



370 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

he reacted from his earlier extreme, ascetical views, 
and grew steadily in breadth of sympathy and in 
reasonableness of judgment. He had a mind of 
great speculative power and acuteness, which was 
enriched with prodigious learning. It is said that 
he produced no less than six thousand writings, a 
statement which, though probably exaggerated, 
witnesses to the remarkable fertility of his mind 
and to the extent of his labors. 

Of his numerous writings, nearly fifty volumes, 
too costly for reproduction, perished by fire at 
the capture of Caesarea by the Arabs in 653. Of 
his extant works I can notice but two or three. 
The most extensive of these, and the one upon 
which his fame as a critic mainly rests, is the 
" Hexapla." This was an edition of the Old Tes- 
tament Scriptures in which were arranged in par- 
allel columns (1) The Hebrew text of the Old 
Testament, (2) The same in Greek letters, (3) The 
Version of Aquila, (4) The Version of Symma- 
chus, (5) The text of the Septuagint, and (6) The 
Version of Theodotion. In giving an account of 
the origin of this colossal work, Dr. Bigg says : — 

" In controversy with the Jews the Christian disputant 
was constantly baffled by the retort, that the passages on 
which he relied were not found, or were otherwise ex- 
pressed, in the Hebrew. Several new translations or 
recensions of the whole or part of the LXX. had been 
produced, in which the discrepancies of the Alexandrine 
Version from the original were brought into strong relief. 



Christian School of Alexandria, 371 

Origen saw clearly the whole of the difficulties involved, 
and with characteristic grandeur and fearlessness deter- 
mined upon producing an edition of the Old Testament 
that should exhibit in parallel columns the Hebrew text 
and the rival versions, thus bringing before the eye of 
the inquirer, in one view, the whole of the evidence 
attainable. . . . This gigantic and costly scheme was 
rendered feasible by the munificence, and facilitated by 
the active co-operation, of Ambrosius." 

His work on " First Principles" (De Principiis), 
written in 228, contains Origen's main philosophi- 
cal and theological principles. Of this only frag- 
ments have survived in the original Greek, but we 
have a Latin translation, or paraphrase, of the 
whole by Rufinus. 

The book " Against Celsus " (Contra Celsum) 
is a work of great ability and of high apologetic 
value. Its value is enhanced by the fact that it 
contains in quotations almost the whole of Celsus' 
acute attack on Christianity. This work, in an- 
swer to Celsus, was undertaken by Origen, at the 
request of his friend Ambrosius. We know noth- 
ing with certainty concerning the personal history 
of Celsus, and apparently Origen knew as little as 
do we. His book entitled " A True Discourse " 
('A\?70?7? A070?), evidently was the work of a 
Platonist (Origen mistakenly calls him an Epi- 
curean), who wrote probably as early as the time 
of Marcus Aurelius, though Ueberweg puts the 
date as late as 200. He combated Christianity 



372 From "Jerusalem to Niccect. 

partly from the Jewish and partly from his own 
philosophic point of view, " reducing its historical 
basis to an abortive attempt at insurrection, and 
opposing to the Christian idea of forbearing love 
the idea of justice; to faith in the redemption of 
humanity, faith in an eternal, rational order of the 
universe ; to the doctrine of God Incarnate, the 
idea of the remoteness of God, whose influence on 
earthly things is exerted only indirectly ; and to 
faith in the resurrection of the body, the doctrine 
of the nothingness of matter and of the future 
existence of the soul alone." Every essential 
form of objection to Christianity that has been 
presented up to the present time is to be found, 
germinally at least, in Celsus. He was well fur- 
nished for his attack. He had travelled widely, 
and conversed with representatives of every shade 
of religious belief, including many Christians. He 
was familiar with the four Gospels and Genesis 
and Exodus, and had some acquaintance with the 
writings of the prophets and with the apostolic 
epistles ; he had considerable acquaintance also 
with Gnostic and Judaistic literature. 

In his answer, which was written in his later 
years (244-249), and represents, therefore, the 
maturity of his powers and his more sober and 
evangelic thought, Origen covers all the ground 
covered by previous apologists, — the character of 
Christians and the historicity of Christianity, — and 
enters on the wider domain of the relation of 



Christian School of Alexandria. 373 

Christianity to philosophy, to the pagan religions, 
and to national life. It is a comprehensive work, 
in which the gauntlet is taken up for Christianity 
against attack on critical, historical, philosophical, 
and political grounds. There is no time now to 
give an analysis of the work. He who desires to 
read it may easily do so in an English translation, 
and he will find it much the most interesting, to 
the ordinary reader, of all Origen's extant works* 

I quote a few passages to show the sobriety 
and dignity of Origen's style, the calmness and 
clearness of his judgment, and the breadth and 
sanity of his thought. In commendation of Jesus' 
doctrine as a doctrine of salvation, he says : — 

"Both Jesus Himself and His disciples desired that 
His followers should believe not merely in His Godhead 
and miracles, as if He had not also been a partaker of 
human nature, and had assumed the human flesh which 
1 lusteth against the Spirit ; ' but they saw also that the 
power which had descended into human nature, and into 
the midst of human miseries, and which had assumed a 
human soul and body, contributed through faith, along 
with its divine elements, to the salvation of believers, 
when they see that from Him there began the union of 
the Divine with the human nature, in order that the 
human, by communion with the Divine, might rise to be 
divine, not in Jesus alone, but in all those who not only 
believe, but enter upon the life which Jesus taught, and 
which elevates to friendship with God and communion 
with Him every one who lives according to the precepts 
of Jesus." 



374 From ^Jerusalem to Niccza. 

In answer to Celsus' charge, which he pro- 
nounces malicious, that Christians assert that " God 
will receive the unrighteous man if he humble 
himself on account of his wickedness, but that He 
will not receive the righteous man, although he 
look up to Him, [adorned] with virtue from the 
beginning," he replies : — 

" Now we assert that it is impossible for a man to look 
up to God [adorned] with virtue from the beginning. 
For wickedness must necessarily first exist in men. As 
Paul also says, ' When the commandment came, sin re- 
vived, and I died.' Moreover, we do not teach regarding 
the unrighteous man, that it is sufficient for him to humble 
himself on account of his wickedness, in order to his 
being accepted by God, but that God will accept him if, 
after passing condemnation upon himself for his past con- 
duct, he walk humbly on account of it, and in a becoming 
manner for the time to come." 

In reply to Celsus' criticism that it is " wicked 
and impious " to believe that " the great God 
should become a slave or suffer death," as was 
implied in the Christian doctrine of the Incarna- 
tion, Origen says with great dignity and in the 
most excellent spirit : — 

" If we consider Jesus in relation to the divinity that 
was in Him, the things which He did in this capacity 
present nothing to offend our ideas of God, nothing but 
what is holy ; and if we consider Him as man, distin- 
guished beyond all other men by an intimate communion 
with the Eternal Word, with absolute Wisdom, He suf- 



Christian School of Alexandria. 375 

fered as one who was wise and perfect, whatever it be- 
hooved Him to suffer who did all for the good of the 
human race, yea, even for the good of all intelligent 
beings. And there is nothing absurd in a man having 
died, and in his death being not only an example of 
death endured for the sake of piety, but also the first 
blow in the conflict which is to overthrow the power of 
that evil spirit, the devil, who had obtained dominion over 
the whole world. For we have signs and pledges of the 
destruction of his empire, in those who through the 
coming of Christ are everywhere escaping from the power 
of demons, and who, after their deliverance from this 
bondage in which they were held, consecrate themselves 
to God, and earnestly devote themselves day by day to 
advancement in a life of piety." 

Contrasting the prayers of Christians to God 
with the prayers of even philosophic heathens to 
images of the gods, Origen says : — 

" A Christian, even of the common people, is as- 
sured that every place forms part of the universe, and 
that the whole universe is God's temple. In whatever 
part of the world he is, he prays ; but he rises above the 
universe, ' shutting the eyes of sense, and raising upwards 
the eyes of the soul.' And he stops not at the vault of 
heaven ; but passing in thought beyond the heavens, 
under the guidance of the Spirit of God, and having thus 
as it were gone beyond the visible universe, he offers 
prayers to God. But he prays for no trivial blessings, for 
he has learnt from Jesus to seek for nothing small or mean, 
that is, sensible objects, but to ask only for what is great 
and truly divine ; and these things God grants to us, to 



376 From Jerusalem to N ices a. 

lead us to that blessedness which is found only with Him 
through His Son, the Word, who is God." 



In his conception of the Christian life, Origen, 
like Clement, believed profoundly in Gnosis, as the 
result and fulfilment of faith; but instead of the 
term " Gnosis," he uses the term " Wisdom." In 
his interpretations of Scripture, he followed Philo 
and his school in the use of allegorism. This, 
however, was far more characteristic of his earlier 
than of his later work; in respect to allegorism, as 
well as asceticism, he changed to a more rational 
position. In his " First Principles," one of his 
earliest works, he thus defines and defends the use 
of allegorism in interpreting Scripture: "For as 
man consists of body, and soul, and spirit, so in 
the same way does Scripture, which has been 
arranged to be given by God for the salvation of 
men." He maintains that there are in Scripture, 
in general, three senses, the literal, the moral, and 
the spiritual ; the first he identifies with the body, 
the second with the soul, and the third with the 
spirit. For example, in the parable of the mustard 
seed, the grain of mustard is, first, simply the seed, 
then it is faith, and then it is the Kingdom of 
Heaven. The phrase, " little foxes," in the Song 
of Songs, means, in the second sense, sins of indi- 
viduals, and, in the third sense, heresies which are 
distracting the Church. Not all passages are sus- 
ceptible of this three-fold treatment, and there are 



Christian School of Alexandria. ^77 

some, the entire significance of which lies in their 
mystical sense. 

Concerning the latter he says : — 

" But since, if the usefulness of the legislation, and the 
sequence and beauty of the history, were universally evi- 
dent of themselves, we should not believe that any other 
thing could be understood in the Scriptures save what was 
obvious, the word of God has arranged that certain 
stumbling-blocks, as it were, and offences and impossi- 
bilities, should be introduced into the midst of the law and 
the history, in order that we may not, through being 
drawn away in all directions by the merely attractive nature 
of the language, either altogether fall away from the 
[true] doctrines, as learning nothing worthy of God, or, 
by not departing from the letter, come to the knowledge 
of nothing more divine. And this also we must know, 
that the principal aim being to announce the l spiritual ' 
connection in those things that are done, and that ought to 
be done, where the Word found that things done according 
to the history could be adapted to these mystical senses, 
He made use of them, concealing from the multitude the 
deeper meaning ; but where, in the narrative of the devel- 
opment of supersensual things, there did not follow the 
performance of those certain events, which was already 
indicated by the mystical meaning, the Scripture inter- 
wove in the history some event that did not take place ; 
sometimes what could not have happened ; sometimes 
what could, but did not. And sometimes a few words are 
interpolated which are not true in their literal acceptation, 
and sometimes a larger number. . . . And at other times 
impossibilities are recorded for the sake of the more skilful 



378 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

and inquisitive, in order that they may give themselves to 
the toil of investigating what is written, and thus attain to 
a becoming conviction of the manner in which a meaning 
worthy of God must be sought out in such subjects." 

The fame of Origen has been greater than that 
of Clement, his master, or, indeed, that of any other 
of the early Fathers, both because of the greater 
scope of his learning and intellectual force, and be- 
cause of his relation to the Trinitarian controversy, 
which, though as yet scarcely begun, soon filled the 
whole theological horizon of the Church. Substan- 
tially in sympathy with Clement, Origen differed 
from him in practically adopting the methods of 
the Neo-Platonists ; though, notwithstanding his 
use of these, he rested fundamentally in his teaching 
on the Christian revelation, and, quite as strongly 
as Clement, held to the truth of the Incarnation, 
the immanent God. It must be said also that, 
however far from " the simplicity of Christ" some 
of his speculations may seem to have carried him, 
he was always a humble and fervent believer in 
Jesus. 

He was the first who elaborated a complete 
theological system. His conception of God, the 
absolute Deity, had a certain resemblance to the 
conceptions both of the Gnostics and the Neo- 
Platonists. Gnosticism removed God to an infinite 
distance from the material universe ; Neo-Platonism 
sought to bring God and man together in conscious 
experience, but it was hampered by the Gnostic idea 



Christian School of Alexandria. 379 

which it seemed incapable of shaking off. Origen, 
though he did not entirely free himself from the 
fundamental notion of the Gnostics and the Neo- 
Platonists, of the infinite remoteness and inaccess- 
ibleness of the absolute God, yet was held to a 
Christian, and a sound theological, position by his 
immovable conviction of the divine immanence in 
the world and in humanity. His contribution to 
the Christian doctrine of the Trinity was large, 
although he did not by any means apprehend the 
entire scope of the problem. Before the thinker 
who sought to formulate a rational conception of 
God there lay the alternative of a multiplicity of 
Divine Beings, which is polytheism, whether the 
gods be three or three thousand in number, or a 
simple oneness of God, which is bald deism. 
Origen maintained that God is omniscient, omni- 
present, immutable, and incomprehensible, yet not 
impassible, for He has love. The Son, or Divine 
Word, is derived from the Father, and yet is co- 
eternal with Him. He did not begin to be, but is 
eternally begotten. The Son is thus co-eternal and 
in some real sense co-equal witlvthe Father. Says 
Origen : — 

" There never can have been a time when He was not. 
For when was that God, whom St. John calls the Light, des- 
titute of the radiance of His proper glory, so that a man 
may dare to ascribe a beginning of existence to the Son ? 
. . . Let a man, who ventures to say there was a time when 
the Son was not, consider that this is all one with saying 



380 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

there was a time when Wisdom was not, the Word was not, 
the Life was not." 

Yet the Word is not absolutely identical and co- 
extensive with the Father. He is the " Splendor 
of the Divine Glory, the Image of the Father's 
Person ; " the Father is the " Fountain " from which 
the Son's divinity is drawn; in other words, the 
Son answers to the Father as Effect to Cause ; the 
Son is therefore subordinate to the Father. 

Origen's doctrine of the eternally generated Son 
pointed the way for Christian thought, but his idea 
of subordination left open the door for Arianism. 

Of the Holy Spirit Origen declares that He is 
co-eternal with the Father and the Son, and yet, 
like the Son, He is subordinate to the Father. As 
the Son is derived from the Father, so the Holy 
Spirit, in turn, is derived from the Son. As the 
Son is the personification of divine reason, the 
Spirit is the personification and hypostasis of divine 
holiness. He is the spring of all spiritual gifts. I 
quote from Dr. Bigg the succinct statement: " The 
Father gives being to all that exists ; the Son im- 
parts reason, Logos, to all that is capable of it ; 
the Holy Ghost works life in those that believe." 

We have thus in Origen's teaching a doctrine 
of the Trinity, but it is not the doctrine which 
finally became dominant in the Church. As 
I have already intimated, he came too early to 
grasp the full significance of the problem with 



Christian School of Alexandria. 381 

which Athanasius was called to deal, and his 
teaching was susceptible of such interpretation 
that his support was claimed on both sides of the 
great controversy. 

In his theory of the various orders of created 
beings Origen approached Gnosticism. His hier- 
archy of spirits corresponds in some degree to the 
Gnostic series of yEons. Spirits have the same 
substance as God, but they do not possess good 
as an essential and inherent part of their being; 
they acquire it by their own determination. 
This moral determination is always within their 
power. A good angel may become an evil 
angel, and an evil angel may become a good 
angel. Like Clement, only more fully than he, 
Origen held to the freedom of the will, powerfully 
opposing the fatalism and predestinationism of 
Gnostic thought, and supporting his doctrines by 
copious citations of Scripture and by acute argu- 
ment. All created spirits come into being free to 
determine their own character, and matter was 
created to serve as an envelope to the soul and to 
give outward form to moral determinations. In 
order, apparently, to meet certain exigencies of 
his system, he held to the Platonic idea of the pre- 
existence of human souls, but he denied metem- 
psychosis. Man's condition in this world is the 
result of a fall precedent to his entrance into this 
world. Origen's idea of original sin is entirely un- 
like that of later theologians. He was not, however, 



382 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

always consistent, nor is his thought always per- 
fectly clear. He seems to have held that the story 
of the fall in Genesis is a pure allegory : Adam 
represents man in his pre-mundane state, and 
Adam's sin is a symbolical representation of man's 
primal defection from God. He suggests that the 
coats of skins with which the Lord clothed Adam 
and Eve may represent the bodies in which fallen 
angels were incarnated on their expulsion from 
the spiritual Paradise. 

In the hierarchy of spiritual beings man comes 
midway; above him are the angels, and below him 
are the demons, or fallen angels, who have attained 
varying degrees of sinfulness. Every man in this 
world has his accompanying demon and good 
angel. By the former he is enticed to sin, but he 
may overcome the demons and hold their power 
in check by righteous action ; by the good angel 
he is helped in proportion as he himself strives 
after that which is good. 

Origen's system is thus not one of absolute 
individualism. Man is subject to the influences of 
good and evil about him in the world, and he 
maintains a certain solidarity with his race. Not- 
withstanding his fall, he has within him a spark of 
the divine life. His nature is threefold, consisting 
of spirit, soul, and body. 

Origen maintains the doctrine of salvation 
through the power of the Word, who is joined to 
the human soul of Christ and becomes incarnate. 



Christian School of Alexandria, 383 

"Who else," he asks, " is able to save and conduct the 
soul of man to the God of all things, save God the Word, 
who, - being in the beginning with God,' became flesh for 
the sake of those who had cleaved to the flesh, and had 
become as flesh, that He might be received by those who 
could not behold Him, inasmuch as He was the Word, 
and was with God and was God? And discoursing in 
human form, and announcing Himself as flesh, He calls to 
Himself those who are flesh, that He may in the first place 
cause them to be transformed according to the Word that 
was made flesh, and afterwards may lead them upwards to 
behold Him as He was before He became flesh." 

Origen, like Clement, has no doctrine of expia- 
tion, in the strict sense of the term. The Incar- 
nate Word becomes our Ransom and in some 
sense our Propitiation. He makes of Himself a 
world-sacrifice, but His death is not an expiation 
by which God is propitiated in 'the sense of the 
later theology ; it is a ransom offered to Satan ; 
and yet, through that very death, Satan himself is 
overcome and defrauded of his victims. Origen is 
not thoroughly consistent here ; in one place he 
maintains that martyrs by their death overcome 
the powers of evil in a way similar to Christ's tri- 
umph over Satan by His death, but he also, and 
with great force, maintains that the death of Christ 
was an unparalleled exhibition and achievement of 
divine Love. 

The final redemptive process fulfilled by the 
Divine Word is the salvation of all. Hell is a 



3$ 4- From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

purifying fire; even Satan himself, and all the 
fallen angels, will be saved, and the triumph of 
infinite Love will be complete. Of future punish- 
ment Origen says : " The Lord is like a refiner's 
fire." 

" It is certain that the fire which is prepared for sin- 
ners awaits us, and we shall go into that fire, wherein God 
will try each man's work of what kind it is. . . . Even if 
it be a Paul or a Peter, he shall come into that fire, but 
such are they of whom it is written, ' though thou pass 
through the fire, the flame shall not scorch thee.' The 
holy and the just are cleansed, like Aaron and Isaiah, 
with coals from off the altar. But sinners, l among whom 
I count myself,' must be purged with another fire. This 
is not of the altar, it is not the Lord's, but is kindled by 
the sinner himself within his own heart. Its fuel is our 
own evil, the wood, the hay, the straw, sins graver or 
lighter, which we have built upon the foundation laid by 
Christ. Anger, envy, remorse, these rack men even in this 
life with anguish so intolerable, that many perish by their 
own hand rather than bear their torments longer. How 
much fiercer will be the smart, when the soul in the light 
of eternity surveys the history of all its wickedness written 
in indelible characters upon its own texture ; when it is 
' sawn asunder ' by the pangs which attend the separation 
of the guilty passions from the pure spirit ; when it be- 
wails in ' outer darkness ' its banishment from Him, who 
is the Light and the Life." 

Of Origen's successors there is space here to say 
but little. HERACLAS, who was his assistant, and in 



Christian School of Alexandria. 385 

whose hands he left the school when he retired 
from Alexandria, retained the headship of the 
school but a short time. On the death of Deme- 
trius, in 233, Heraclas was chosen bishop of Alex- 
andria, and occupied the episcopal seat until his 
death in 248. That he was a man of learning and 
intellectual power is shown by the fact that Origen 
committed to him the care of the school, and also 
by the fact that the distinguished scholar, Julius 
Africanus, paid him a visit on account of his celeb- 
rity; but no works of his have survived, and he 
seems not to have mingled much, if any, in the 
great theological discussions of his time. 

On the election of Heraclas to the episcopate, 
DlONYSIUS was called to the head of the school. 
He was born, near the end of the second century, 
of an honorable and wealthy, but heathen, family. 
He became a Christian through reading the epis- 
tles of St. Paul, and was baptized by Demetrius. 
By his conversion, like St. Paul, he abandoned his 
worldly prospects, " counting all things but loss 
that he might win Christ." Dionysius was the 
most distinguished of Origen's Alexandrian pu- 
pils, and always remained faithful to the teachings 
of his master. In 248 he was made bishop of 
Alexandria, to succeed Heraclas, but he seems to 
have retained the headship of the Catechetical 
school to the end of his life. He suffered much 
in the persecutions by Decius and Valerian, 

25 



386 From Jerusalem, to Niccea. 

under the former barely escaping with his life 
through the timely courage of a friend, and under 
the latter being sent into exile. In 260, however, 
under Gallienus he was allowed to return, and re- 
mained at his post through war, pestilence, and 
famine, until his death in 265. As an administra- 
tor he showed wisdom and moderation, dealing 
gently with the " lapsed." In theology he fol- 
lowed Origen, but in controverting Sabellianism 
he laid himself open to the charge of Tritheism. 
The charge, however, was unjust, as Athanasius 
afterwards showed. 

Dionysius was openly sympathetic with Origen 
through all the latter's misfortunes, and felt great 
sorrow at his death. He wrote a book, " Con- 
cerning Martyrdom," which he dedicated to Ori- 
gen a short time before Origen's death. He 
wrote voluminously, but of both his treatises and 
his numerous letters only fragments remain. Of 
his writings Westcott says : They " repay careful 
study. They are uniformly inspired by the sym- 
pathy and large-heartedness which he showed in 
practice. His criticism of the style of the Apoc- 
alypse is perhaps unique among early writings for 
clearness and scholarly precision." Of the latter 
a specimen has been preserved for us in the pages 
of Eusebius. 

Following Dionysius was PlERIUS, who conducted 
the school for some years from 265, but afterwards 



Christian School of Alexandria. 387 

gave it up and retired to Rome. He was eminent 
for his voluntary poverty, his knowledge of philos- 
ophy, and his power in the public exposition of 
the Scriptures. His eloquence won for him the 
title of " the younger Origen." On one Easter 
eve, it is said, he gave a discourse on Hosea to 
which the . people listened until after midnight. 
His works have perished, and he probably suf- 
fered martyrdom under Diocletian. 

We hear little more of the Catechetical school 
in Alexandria, though it continued to exist until 
near the end of the fourth century. It attained 
the zenith of its power under Clement and Origen, 
but after these great masters passed away it 
rapidly declined in influence. 

The most brilliant of Origen's pupils in Caesarea 
was GREGORY, known in ecclesiastical history as 
Gregory Thaumaturgus. He was a native of 
Pontus, and was born about 210. In his youth 
he purposed to devote himself to the study of 
Roman law. While on his way to the famous 
school of jurisprudence at Berytus, in Syria, he 
visited Caesarea, where he fell into the hands of 
Origen, under whose influence he became a fer- 
vent Christian, and in whose school he remained 
five years. On his return to his home in Pontus 
he was chosen bishop of Neo-Caesarea (about 240), 
and filled his office with exceptional ability until 
his death in 270. He was a man not only of 



388 From Jerusalem, to Niccea. 

learning, but also of peculiar force of character 
and weight of judgment. To his eloquent pan- 
egyric on Origen we are indebted for the fullest 
knowledge we possess of the master's spirit and 
method in teaching. No pupil drank more deeply 
of that spirit than Gregory. In his diocese he 
found at the beginning only seventeen Christians, 
but so ardent was his zeal and so great and suc- 
cessful were his labors that at his death there were 
scarcely as many heathen. It is not to be won- 
dered at that about his name there gathered, later, 
many legends of his miraculous deeds, — hence 
his name, Thaumaturgus, which means wonder- 
worker. 

Gregory's tendency was practical rather than 
speculative, yet he took part in the controversies 
of his time and wrote several works which are 
conspicuous for their modesty and practical sense 
as well as for their philosophical tone. Many 
heretical writings were afterwards attached to his 
name, but, like the miracles, they are spurious. 
His panegyric on Origen is a piece of noble and 
generous eloquence. 

As specimens of Gregory's spirit and style I 
quote several paragraphs. Early in his discourse 
he likens Origen to a skilful gardener dealing with 
a " field unwrought and altogether unfertile, . . . 
or, . . . not utterly barren or unproductive, but 
. . . waste and neglected, and stiff and untract- 
able with thorns and wild shrubs." 



Christian School of Alexandria. 389 

" In suchwise, then," he says, " and with such a dis- 
position did he receive us at first ; and surveying us, as it 
were, with a husbandman's skill, and gauging us thor- 
oughly, and not confining his notice to those things only 
which are patent to the eye of all, and which are looked 
upon in open light, but penetrating into us more deeply, 
and probing what is most inward in us, he put us to the 
question, and made propositions to us, and listened to 
us in our replies ; and whenever he thereby detected 
anything in us not wholly fruitless and profitless and 
waste, he set about clearing the soil, and turning it up 
and irrigating it, and putting all things in movement, 
and brought his whole skill and care to bear on us, and 
wrought upon our mind. And thorns and thistles, 
and every kind of wild herb or plant which our mind 
. . . yielded and produced in its uncultured luxuriance 
and native wildness, he cut out and thoroughly removed 
by the processes of refutation and prohibition." 

Here, for a moment, Gregory changes the figure, 
and speaks of Origen as " assailing us in the gen- 
uine Socratic fashion, and again upsetting us by 
his argumentation whenever he saw us getting res- 
tive under him, like so many unbroken steeds, and 
springing out of the course and galloping madly 
about at random, until with a strange kind of per- 
suasiveness and constraint he reduced us to a state 
of quietude under him by his discourse, which 
acted like a bridle in our mouth." 

After speaking of Origen's treatment of dia- 
lectics, he turns to natural philosophy, and then 
says : — 



39° From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

" What need is there now to speak of the sacred mathe- 
matics, viz. geometry, so precious to all and above all 
controversy, and astronomy, whose course is on high? 
These different studies he imprinted on our understand- 
ings, training us in them, or calling them into our mind, 
or doing with us something else which I know not how to 
designate rightly. And the one he presented lucidly as 
the immutable ground-work and secure foundation of all, 
namely geometry ; and by the other, namely astronomy, 
he lifted us up to the things that are highest above us, 
while he made heaven passable to us by the help of each 
of these sciences, as though they were ladders reaching 
the skies." 

Gregory thus sums up Origen's work in behalf 
of his- pupils: — 

" This admirable man, this friend and advocate of the 
virtues, has long ago done for us perhaps all that it lay 
in his power to do for us, in making us lovers of virtue, 
who should love it with the most ardent affection. And 
by his own virtue he created in us a love at once for the 
beauty of righteousness, the golden face of which in truth 
was shown to us by him ; and for prudence, which is 
worthy of being sought by all ; and for the true wisdom, 
which is most delectable ; and for temperance, the 
heavenly virtue which forms the sound constitution of the 
soul, and brings peace to all who possess it; and for 
manliness, that most admirable grace ; and for patience, 
that virtue peculiarly ours ; and, above all, for piety, 
which men rightly designate when they call it the mother 
of the virtues. . . . And the end of all I consider to be 
nothing but this : By the pure mind make thyself like to 



Christian School of Alexandria, 391 

God, that thou mayest draw near to Him, and abide in 
Him." 

The Panegyric concludes with this affecting 
apostrophe to Origen : — 

" But, O dear soul, arise thou and offer prayer, and now 
dismiss us ; and as by thy holy instructions thou hast 
been our savior when we enjoyed thy fellowship, so save 
us still by thy prayers in our separation. Commend us 
and set us constantly before thee in prayer. Or rather 
commend us continually to that God who brought us to 
thee, giving thanks for all that has been granted us in the 
past, and imploring Him still to lead us by the hand in 
the future, and to stand ever by us, filling our mind with 
the understanding of His precepts, inspiring us with the 
godly fear of Himself, and vouchsafing us henceforward 
His choicest guidance. For when we are gone from 
thee, we shall not have the same liberty for obeying Him 
as was ours when we were with thee. Pray, therefore, 
that some encouragement may be conveyed to us from 
Him when we lose thy presence, and that He may send 
us a good conductor, some angel to be our comrade on 
the way. And entreat Him also to turn our course, and 
bring us back to thee again; for that is the one thing 
which above all else will effectually comfort us." 

The teaching of Origen awakened prolonged 
controversy in the Church. Most of this arose 
after the Nicene Council, and the discussion of it 
can have no place here. One result of this con- 
troversy was the obscuration, for a long time, of 
Origen's true merits, but his day has come at last; 



392 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

and now, through the labors of Christian scholars 
and thinkers, this great Christian thinker of the 
third century is indirectly influencing theological 
thought more powerfully, perhaps, than at any 
time since the rise of the passionate contentions 
that rent the Church during the fourth century. 



THE FIRST ECUMENICAL COUNCIL. 

WE have now reviewed, somewhat in detail, 
the history of more than two hundred and 
fifty years from the time when Jesus of Nazareth 
preached in Palestine and commissioned his little 
group of immediate followers to publish His gos- 
pel throughout the world. We have seen the 
Life imparted by Him, embodying itself in a 
Church which, from a purely democratic con- 
gregation, rapidly developed into an elaborate 
ecclesiastical organization that, in spite of all 
opposition, spread over almost the whole of the 
Roman empire. We have seen the Life express- 
ing itself in a literature, which, at first artless and 
crude, slowly acquired force and finish of expres- 
sion, as well as richness and variety of substance, 
until it ripened into the graceful apology of 
Athenagoras, the powerful polemic of Tertullian, 
and the comprehensive philosophic theology of 
Origen. We have seen the Life subliming hum- 
ble fishermen into heroic advocates and martyrs of 
the faith; transforming self-indulgent heathens 
into self-denying Christians, whose unexampled 
virtue challenged the admiration, while it rebuked 



394 From yerusalem to Niccea. 

the vices, of many peoples ; and giving to strong 
men and weak women alike the courage and forti- 
tude to meet and exhaust the assaults of every 
form of persecution. We have seen the handful 
of believers in Palestine becoming a host in every 
city of the empire, whose purity of life, elevation 
of character, and overflowing charities were writ- 
ing a new and unparalleled chapter in the history 
of the moral progress of mankind. It remains 
for us, in this concluding lecture, to trace the 
movement of Christian thought into a great con- 
troversy, the issue of which was the Nicene doc- 
trine of the Trinity. Around this doctrine the 
life of the Church organized itself for a struggle 
that continued with varying fortunes for three 
centuries, and that, on a smaller scale, has been 
renewed at different times during the succeeding 
centuries, even down to our own time. 

The Trinitarian controversy arose in Alex- 
andria in the second half of the third century. 
From the time of Philo there had been more or 
less speculation on the nature of God and on 
the relation subsisting between the Logos and 
the Father. In the Church, from the time of the 
apostles, there was a practical and unformulated 
Trinitarianism; that is, to both the Son and the 
Holy Spirit as well as to the Father attributes 
proper to deity were ascribed by Christian 
writers. When the speculative spirit arose in 
the Church, and there was an attempt to develop 



First Ecumenical Council, 395 

a philosophical explanation of the divine nature, 
and a definition of the relations between Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit, various forms of thought 
arose which may be roughly classified as Monar- 
chian on the one hand and Trinitarian on the 
other. Of the former, Praxeas in Asia Minor 
about 190, Beryllus of Bostra in Arabia in the 
first half of the third century, and Sabellius of 
Ptolemais in Egypt and Paul of Samosata a few 
years later, may be taken as representatives. 

The subordinationism of Origen, while it was 
guarded by his doctrine of the eternal generation 
of the Son, seemed to some to point to an essen- 
tially Monistic conception of the divine nature. 
A distinct Trinitarian doctrine was not authorita- 
tively formulated till the beginning of the fourth 
century; but during the preceding half-century, 
in which theological speculation was increasingly 
rife, the general movement of Christian thought 
was toward a sharper discrimination between the 
two general types which I have already desig- 
nated. In 262 a controversy arose between 
Dionysius of Alexandria and Dionysius of Rome, 
in which the discussion turned on the nature and 
essence of the Logos, who had become incarnate 
in Christ, and on His relation to the Father. 
From this time the view that the Son was of the 
same essence as the Father, and equal with Him, 
rapidly gained adherents. Those who adopted 
this view, of course, soon saw the inconsistency 



396 From Jerusalem to N ices a, 

of maintaining subordinationism and they aban- 
doned it. Their opponents held that Christ was 
subordinate to the Father, and they carried their 
idea so far as to maintain that He was not only 
not of the same substance as the Father, but that, 
although pre-existent, He had a beginning, and 
was therefore not co-eternal with the Father. A 
third party, consisting mainly of those whose 
thought was dominated by the influence of Origen, 
sought to reconcile these antagonistic forms of 
doctrine by propounding the view that the Son 
was of like substance with the Father and, though 
subordinate to the Father, was yet co-eternal with 
Him. 

The discussion came to an acute crisis in the 
controversy between Arius, a presbyter, and 
Alexander, the metropolitan of Egypt; and this 
controversy led to the calling of the famous Coun- 
cil at Nicaea. Though this was the chief cause 
for the great Council, there were other causes 
also, namely, the Easter controversy, which 
divided the churches of Asia Minor from the 
other Eastern and the Western churches, on the 
proper time for the celebration of Easter, and the 
Meletian schism. Meletius was bishop of Lycop- 
olis, and, of the Egyptian bishops, was next in 
rank to the bishop of Alexandria. Early in the 
Diocletian persecution Peter, who was bishop of 
Alexandria from 300 to 311, following illustrious 
examples, withdrew to a place of safety. During 



First Ecumenical Council. 397 

his absence Meletius, who considered Peter's 
withdrawal a recreant abandonment of his post, 
assumed the primacy of Egypt and ordained 
presbyters in dioceses other than his own. Four 
Egyptian bishops, who had been imprisoned on 
account of their faith, sent to him a protest de- 
nouncing his action as a violation of the eccle- 
siastical rule that no bishop should intrude into 
the diocese of another. To this protest Meletius 
paid no attention. In a little time the four 
bishops were put to death by the officials of the 
emperor, and Meletius went to Alexandria, where 
he was welcomed by two malcontent presbyters, 
Isidore and Arius. One of his first acts was to 
depose the two visitors, or vicars-general, who 
had been commissioned by Peter, and to appoint 
in their places two others, one of whom was in 
prison and the other confined at hard labor in a 
mine. Peter, hearing of all this, wrote to the 
church in Alexandria, forbidding fellowship to 
Meletius until his action had been investigated. 
A synod of Egyptian bishops was summoned 
which deposed Meletius, but he had attached to 
himself a considerable number of followers and 
partisans, and these he drew off and formed into 
a rival body. Such in brief was the Meletian 
schism ; its treatment by the Nicene Council will 
be considered later. 

The main reason, however, for calling the 
council was the controversy over the Trinity. It 



398 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

will subserve clearness if I give some account of 
the rise of this controversy and the personalities 
engaged in it. 

Alexander had succeeded to Achillas in the 
episcopate of Alexandria in 313. He was a man 
already past middle life, of kindly and gentle dis- 
position, but also with considerable force of char- 
acter. Arius, his antagonist, was born in Libya 
about 256, and educated under Lucian in Antioch. 
When he came to Alexandria 'is not known, but 
he was ordained deacon by Peter some time be- 
fore 311, and presbyter by Achillas about 312. 
After his ordination as presbyter he was given 
sole charge of a church in Baukalis, where, owing 
to his eloquence and asceticism, and also to a 
certain strong personal fascination, he became 
very popular. On the death of Achillas he seems 
to have been a very nearly successful rival of 
Alexander for the vacant episcopate, or rather 
archiepiscopate, for the bishop of Alexandria was 
the primate of Egypt. About 318 he began to 
disseminate his peculiar theological opinions in 
Alexandrian society. He taught that Christ was 
not co-eternal, and therefore not co-equal, with 
the Father; that he was pre-existent, however, 
having been created by the Father out of noth- 
ing before all other creatures; that He was the 
Creator of the world and became incarnate for 
the salvation of men through the Virgin Mary; 
that, being a creature, He had the power of 



First Ecumenical Council. 399 

choosing good or evil and might conceivably 
change from good to evil; that in a secondary 
sense He might be called God, and Logos, but 
He did not share in the substance of the Father, 
and therefore there was a time when He was not. 
Alexander, hearing these sentiments bruited about 
the city, sought to check their further dissemina- 
tion by remonstrating with Arius, but without 
success. Arius continued the propagation of his 
opinions and with even increased boldness. Then 
Alexander summoned a conference of the clergy, 
in which there was a free discussion between the 
adherents of Arius and the orthodox clergy. At 
first Alexander sought to conciliate, but finally 
he took strong ground and unequivocally asserted 
the co-eternity of the Son with the Father, and 
administered a reproof to Arius. The latter re- 
torted by charging Alexander with Sabellianism. 
The conference broke up without reaching any 
conclusion. Arius and his adherents continued 
the agitation. Then Alexander wrote a letter 
to Arius and his supporters, exhorting them to 
renounce their "impiety," and this letter was 
signed by a majority of the clergy. This also 
proved to be fruitless, and a synod was called of 
nearly one hundred Egyptian and/Libyan bishops 
before which the Arians were summoned to ap- 
pear. In the trial the Arians maintained their 
opinions, stating that the Son was not eternal, 
but was created by the impersonal Wisdom of the 



40O From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

Father. When asked, "Can He, then, change 
from good to evil, as Satan did?" they replied, 
"Since He is a creature, such a change is not 
impossible." On hearing this the synod anath- 
ematized their doctrines and excommunicated 
Arius. This took place about the year 320. 

Instead of arresting the agitation in the city, 
this action seemed only to increase it. The 
common people mingled in the debate. Arius 
wrote a book of songs called "Thalia," in which 
in rude metre his doctrines were set forth, and 
these songs were sung in the streets. Says 
Stanley: "Sailors, millers and travellers sang 
the disputed doctrines at their occupations, or 
on their journeys. Every corner, every alley of 
the city was full of these discussions, — the 
streets, the market-places, the drapers, the money- 
changers, the victualers. Ask a man how many 
oboli, he answers by dogmatizing on generated 
and ungenerated being. Inquire the price of 
bread, and you are told, 'The Son is subordinate 
to the Father.' Ask if the bath is ready, and 
you are told, 'The Son arose out of nothing. ' ! 
Some of the Arians in debate rudely asked women 
who contended with them : " Pray, had you a son 
before you were a mother? " 

It is difficult for one trained in Occidental 
habits of thought to understand a condition of 
the popular mind like that which prevailed in the 
Greek-Egyptian city of Alexandria. The con- 



First Eaimenical Council. 401 

troversy spread to other cities. Arius, rinding 
that he could not maintain himself, left the city 
and went to Palestine. Here he aroused the 
sympathy of Eusebius of Csesarea, who sought 
to mediate between him and Alexander; he also 
came into communication with Eusebius of Nico- 
media, his former school-fellow under Lucian in 
Antioch, who warmly espoused his cause. 

Alexander wrote a long letter to his name- 
sake, the bishop of Constantinople, in which he 
gave an account of the controversy, expounded 
and defended at length the view of Christ which 
he had maintained as the true view, and an- 
nounced the excommunication of Arius and his 
companions. He wrote v similar letters to Philo- 
gonius, bishop of Antioch, to Eustathius, then 
bishop of Berea, and to others who held the 
orthodox opinion. Arius also wrote letters, 
defending himself, which he addressed "to all 
those who he thought were of his sentiments." 
In his letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia he accused 
Alexander of oppressing and most severely per- 
secuting himself and his companions, and causing 
them much suffering. He says : " He has driven 
us out of the city as atheists, because we do not 
concur in what he publicly preaches, namely, 
that the Father has always been, and that the 
Son has always been ; that as the Father so is the 
Son; that the Son is unbegotten as the Father; 
that He is always being begotten, without hav- 

26 



402 From Jerusalem to Niece a. 

ing been begotten ; that neither by thought nor 
by any interval does God precede the Son, God 
and the Son having always been; and that the 
Son proceeds from God." He cites Eusebius 
of Caesarea, Theodotius, Paulinus, and others as 
implicitly involved in the condemnation which 
had been pronounced upon himself. In explica- 
tion of his own theological position he declares: 
"We say and believe, and have taught, and do 
teach, that the Son is not unbegotten, nor in any 
way unbegotten, even in part; and that he does 
not derive his subsistence from any matter; but 
that by his own will and counsel he has subsisted 
before time, and before ages, as perfect God, only 
begotten and unchangeable, and that he existed 
not before he was begotten, or created, or pur- 
posed, or established. For he was not unbe- 
gotten. We are persecuted, because we say that 
the Son had a beginning, but that God was with- 
out beginning." Arius has been charged with 
a want of entire frankness in this letter, and he 
certainly seems diplomatically to have modified 
the earlier statement of his views. 

Eusebius of Nicomedia wrote to Paulinus, 
bishop of Tyre, expressing sentiments in sub- 
stantial agreement with those set forth in the 
preceding letter of Arius, and urged him to 
exert his influence upon Alexander. He says: 
" I feel confident that if you will write to him, 
you will succeed in bringing him over to your 



First Ecumenical Council. 403 

opinion." Eusebius of Csesarea also wrote to 
Alexander, urging him to re-admit Arius to 
communion. Meanwhile a synod, convened in 
Bithynia, issued letters "to all the bishops, desir- 
ing them to hold communion with the Arians 
as with those making a true confession, and to 
require Alexander to hold communion with them 
likewise." Alexander, however, remained firm; 
Arius, notwithstanding the archbishop's uncom- 
promising attitude, returned to Alexandria and 
resumed his functions. 

Eusebius now brought the matter before Con- 
stantine and persuaded him to write a letter to 
Alexander and Arius to allay the strife and 
reconcile the antagonists. The bearer of the 
letter was Hosius, bishop of Cordova in Spain, 
and the friend and trusted counsellor of Con- 
stantine. In this letter the emperor expresses 
his great desire for peace, and his grief over the 
dissensions that had arisen in Alexandria. He 
exclaims : " O glorious Providence of God ! How 
deep a wound did not my ears only, but my very 
heart, receive in the report that divisions existed 
among yourselves more grievous still than those 
which continued in that country! " (He alludes 
to the Donatist schism in Africa.) "So that 
you, through whose aid I had hoped to procure 
a remedy for the errors of others, are in a state 
which needs healing even more than theirs." 
After setting forth his understanding of how the 



404 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

quarrel arose, he says : " Let therefore both the 
unguarded question and the inconsiderate answer 
receive your mutual forgiveness. For the cause 
of your difference has not been any of the lead- 
ing doctrines or precepts of the Divine law, nor 
has any new heresy respecting the worship of 
God arisen among you. You are in truth of one 
and the same judgment : you may 'therefore well 
join in communion and fellowship. For as long 
as you continue to contend about these small and 
very insignificant questions, it is not fitting that 
so large a portion of God's people should be 
under the direction of your judgment, since you 
are thus divided between yourselves." He ap- 
peals to them thus : " Restore me then my quiet 
days, and untroubled nights, that the joy of 
undimmed light, the delight of a tranquil life, 
may henceforth be my portion. Else must I 
needs mourn, with constant tears, nor shall I 
be able to pass the residue of my days in peace. 
For while the people of God, whose fellow-ser- 
vant I am, are thus divided among themselves by 
an unreasonable and pernicious spirit of conten- 
tion, how is it possible that I shall be able to 
maintain tranquillity of mind?" It is evident 
from his letter that Constantine little understood 
the nature and importance of the matter under 
discussion, and the extent to which the contro- 
versy had gone, yet it is uncritical to say, with 
Pusey, that he attached as much importance to 



First Ecumenical Council. 405 

the Easter controversy as he did to the contro- 
versy on the relation of the Son to the Father, if 
not more. 

Hosius delivered the letter, but found that the 
contention had grown too fierce and had spread 
too widely to be quieted even by imperial in- 
fluence. It appears that during, or immediately 
after, the mission of Hosius, Arius wrote a letter 
of remonstrance which angered the emperor. To 
this Constantine, who was now in a different 
mood, or perhaps had come under different 
influences, replied in a letter to Arius filled with 
irony and invective against him and his adher- 
ents. This he caused to be published throughout 
the cities. He also wrote to the Nicomedians 
severely censuring Eusebius and Theognis, the 
bishop of Nicaea. The controversy had now at- 
tained such proportions . that Constantine, prob- 
ably at the suggestion of Hosius, summoned an 
Ecumenical Council of the bishops of the Church 
to meet in the city of Nicaea in the spring 
of 325. 

The impression which one gets from the clever 
and brilliant pages of Gibbon is not at all favor- 
able to the Christians. Gibbon, learned as he 
was, seems to have had no power to appreciate 
the deeper aspects of the great controversy that 
distracted the Christian Church. There is much, 
indeed, in the conduct and spirit of the various 
disputants to excite mirth, which at times, if not 



406 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

restrained by charity, even deepens into scorn. 
But those men, who debated over abstract theo- 
logical questions with a vehemence and fury 
which we can little understand, were not mere 
fanatics and selfish ecclesiastical disputants. In 
their way they were grappling with the pro- 
foundest problem of philosophy as well as the- 
ology, and were fighting a battle the result of 
which has been of the deepest significance to the 
entire Christian Church throughout all succeed- 
ing centuries. Whatever may be our individual 
views as to the doctrine of the Trinity, we can- 
not, if we are serious students of the progress 
of human thought, treat lightly the discussions 
which finally precipitated the formula known as 
the Nicene Creed. 

* Nicaea, where the Council was convened, was 
a city in Bithynia about twenty miles from 
Nicomedia, which was the ancient capital of 
Bithynia, and, since the time of Diocletian, the 
capital city of the empire in the East. It was 
situated near the Propontis, at the head of the 
Ascanian lake. Strabo, who wrote about the 
beginning of the Christian era, thus describes 
Nicaea as it appeared in his time : " It is sur- 
rounded by a very large and very fertile plain, 
which in the summer is not very healthy. Its 
first founder was Antigonus, the son of Philip, 
who called it Antigonia. It was then rebuilt by 
Lysimachus, who changed its name to that of his 



First Ecumenical Council. 407 

wife Nicaea. She was the daughter of Antipater. 
The city is situated in a plain. Its shape is 
quadrangular, eleven stadia [about one and one- 
third miles] in circuit. It has four gates. Its 
streets are divided at right angles, so that the 
four gates may be seen from a single stone set 
up in the middle of the Gymnasium." Stanley 
somewhat fancifully suggests that the name, as 
being of good omen, may have influenced the 
mind of Constantine — NUrj meaning victory. 
More probably the place was chosen because of 
its proximity to the Eastern capital, and because 
also it was easy of access. The wretched Turk- 
ish village of Is-nik (eh NUcuav), which is the 
modern representative of the ancient Nicaea, 
contains a few ruined mosques and the remains 
of a solitary Christian Church dedicated to "the 
Repose of the Virgin," and is surrounded by 
tangled thickets in which lie scattered broken 
columns, — mournful relics of a once beautiful 
and quite populous city. Stanley, who visited 
the place before writing his History of the 
Eastern Church, tells us that within the little 
church in Is-nik may be found a rude picture 
commemorating the Council, — "the one event 
which, amidst all the vicissitudes of Nicaea, has 
secured for it an immortal name." 

Two interesting reflections occur to us at this 
point. One is the extraordinary spectacle of a 
Roman emperor, sole ruler of a domain that was 



408 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

co-extensive with all Europe and a good part of 
Asia and Africa, calling an Ecumenical Council 
of a religious sect which had arisen less than 
three hundred years before from the preaching 
of a Galilean peasant ! The other is the session 
of this Council in the very province where two 
hundred and fifteen years before had begun the 
formal persecution of this religious sect by the 
empire. 

Whatever may have been the political motives 
which determined Constantine to call the Council, 
— and undoubtedly there were political motives, 
since the strife in the Church, extending itself 
among the laity, had already " threatened serious 
consequences of a political nature," — he was in- 
fluenced also by his regard for the Church ; and, 
considering the bishops to be representatives of 
God and Christ and organs of the Divine Spirit, 
he naturally looked to them to provide the means 
for restoring peace. As Neander suggests, he 
also "had before him the established custom of 
deciding controversies in the single provinces 
by assemblies composed of all the provincial 
bishops." It would appear to Constantine, there- 
fore, to be the most natural means of settling not 
only the doctrinal controversy but also the con- 
troversy over the time for holding the Easter 
festival, to convoke a Council of all the bishops 
in his empire. In his summons to the bishops 
the emperor directed that the means for public 



First Ecumenical Council. 409 

conveyance should be put at their disposal, and 
provision was made for two presbyters and three 
servants to accompany each bishop. Dean Stan- 
ley justly observes that the controversy which 
was the occasion of the Council was characteris- 
tically Eastern and Greek, — " such as no Western 
mind could have originated." It is not sur- 
prising, therefore, that of the more than three 
hundred bishops who came to the Council (the 
traditional number is three hundred and eighteen) 
three hundred and ten were from the East, and 
that the language used in the Council was Greek. 
Accompanying the bishops was a multitude of 
presbyters, deacons and acolytes, aggregating in 
all perhaps two thousand, and even a higher 
number is given. One account states the total 
number as two thousand three hundred and forty- 
eight. It was a motley company that came 
together, containing representatives from Egypt 
and Libya and Nubia and Spain and Italy and 
Gaul and Pannonia and Arabia and Syria and Cap- 
padocia and even Persia and Scytbia. Eusebius 
likens it to the gathering in Jerusalem in the time 
of the Apostles, "among whom were Parthians, 
and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in 
Mesopotamia, in Judea, and Cappadocia, in 
Pontus and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, 
in Egypt, and the parts of Libya about Cyrene; 
and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and prose- 
lytes, Cretans and Arabians." "But that assem- 
bly," he adds, "was less, in that not all who 



410 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

composed it were ministers of God; but in the 
present company, the number of bishops exceeded 
two hundred and fifty, while that of the pres- 
byters and deacons in their train, and the crowd 
of acolytes and other attendants was altogether 
beyond computation." The majority of these 
were undoubtedly uneducated, and many of them 
were obscure, but among them were men of learn- 
ing and eloquence and distinction. The various 
motives that drew these men together were per- 
sonal interest in the discussion and its issues, 
desire to promote the peace of the Church, curi- 
osity to see the emperor, and, in some cases cer- 
tainly, a hope of furthering private ends. As 
the crowds began to arrive the controversy be- 
tween the partisans of the various views broke 
out on the streets. Laymen and philosophers as 
well as ecclesiastics mingled in the discussion. 
A story is variously told by Socrates, Sozomen, 
and Rufinus that a certain heathen philosopher 
named Eulogius, or "Fair-Speech," was so skil- 
ful in sophistical debate that he overcame his 
Christian opponents, when suddenly an aged Con- 
fessor, whom one or two later writers wrongly 
identify with the shepherd-bishop Spyridon, 
stepped forth in defence of the faith. He was 
a rude figure, bearing, in one empty eye-socket 
and a mutilated leg, the marks of the terrible 
persecution under Maximian; 1 and the bystanders 

1 This description fits Paphnutius rather than Spyridon. 



First Ecumenical Council. 411 

were excited, some of them to laughter by his 
appearance, and some of them to anxiety because 
he seemed a champion that by his want of learn- 
ing and dialectical skill invited defeat. The old 
man, nothing daunted, abruptly said to the 
sophist: "Christ and the apostles left us, not a 
system of logic, nor a vain deceit, but a naked 
truth, to be guarded by faith and good works." 
He then briefly recited the simple and impres- 
sive elements of the Christian creed, and said : 
"Do not therefore expend your labor in vain 
by striving to disprove facts which can only be 
understood by faith, or by scrutinizing the man- 
ner in which these things did or did not come 
to pass. Answer me, dost thou believe ? " The 
philosopher, overcome with astonishment at the 
directness and dignity of the aged confessor, 
replied: "I believe." The old man answered: 
"Then, if thou believest, rise and follow me to 
the Lord's house, and receive the sign of this 
faith." The philosopher turned to his disciples, 
and the other bystanders, and said: "Hear, my 
learned friends. So long as it was a matter of 
words, I opposed words to words, and whatever 
was spoken I overthrew by my skill in speaking; 
but when, in the place of words, power came out 
of the speaker's lips, words could no longer resist 
power, man could no longer resist. If any of 
you feel as I have felt, let him believe in Christ, 
and let him follow this old man in whom God has 



412 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

spoken." The story is not inherently incredible, 
and is a fine example "of the magnetic power of 
earnestness and simplicity over argument and 
speculation." 

The Council opened some time in the last of 
May, or early in June. 1 The meetings were held 
mainly in a large hall in the imperial residence. 
According to Stanley, the first meeting was held 
in the Gymnasium, or the church, but the sub- 
sequent meetings were held in the palace. When 
the bishops, with their assistant deacons and 
presbyters, were all assembled and seated on 
benches ranged along the walls on each side of 
the large oblong hall, and "a low chair of wrought 
gold " had been set for the emperor at the upper 
end of the seats, "general silence prevailed in 
expectation of the emperor's arrival." I quote 
from Eusebius' " Life of Constantine" his descrip- 
tion of Constantine's appearance before the Coun- 
cil : "First of all, three of his immediate family 
entered in succession, then others also preceded 
his approach, not of the soldiers or guards who 
usually accompanied him, but only friends in the 
faith. And now, all rising at the signal which 
indicated the emperor's entrance, at last he him- 

1 Socrates says: "This Synod was convened (as we have dis- 
covered from the notation of the date prefixed to the record of the 
Synod) in the consulate of Paulinus and Julian, on the 20th day of 
May, and in the 636th year from the reign of Alexander the Mace- 
donian." Others, however, give dates varying from May 20 to 
June 19. Contemporary information is very scanty. 



First Ecumenical Council. 413 

self proceeded through the midst of the assembly, 
like some heavenly messenger of God, clothed in 
raiment which glittered as it were with rays of 
light, reflecting the glowing radiance of a purple 
robe, and adorned with the brilliant splendor of 
gold and precious stones. Such was the external 
appearance of his person ; and with regard to his 
mind, it was evident that he was distinguished by 
piety and godly fear. This was indicated by his 
downcast eyes, the blush on his countenance, and 
his gait. For the rest of his personal excellences, 
he surpassed all present in height of stature and 
beauty of form, as well as in majestic dignity of 
mien, and invincible strength and vigor. All 
these graces, united to a suavity of manner, and 
a serenity becoming his imperial station, declared 
the excellence of his mental qualities to be above 
all praise." 

The emperor remained standing until the bish- 
ops beckoned him to be seated, and then the whole 
assembly also sat down, and the Council formally 
opened. At this point, according to Theodoret, 
Eustathius, bishop of Antioch, pronounced a pan- 
egyric upon the emperor, but, according to Sozo- 
men and other writers, it would seem to have 
been Eusebius of Caesarea who addressed the 
emperor, and this testimony is not contradicted 
by Eusebius himself. 

Before the opening of the Council, immediately 
upon the emperor's arrival in the city, there had 



414 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

been put into his hand a large number of peti- 
tions from various ecclesiastics, "containing com- 
plaints against those by whom they considered 
themselves aggrieved. " Constantine, in his reply 
to the address of welcome by Eusebius, dis- 
claimed having read the petitions, and said : " All 
these accusations will be brought forward at 
the great day of judgment, and will be judged by 
the Great Judge of all men; as to me, I am but 
a man, and it would be evil in me to take cog- 
nizance of such matters, seeing that the accusers 
and the accused are priests; and priests ought so 
to act as never to become amenable to the judg- 
ment of others. Imitate, therefore, the Divine 
love and mercy of God, and be ye reconciled to 
one another; withdraw your accusations against 
each other, be ye of one mind, and devote your 
attention to those subjects connected with the 
faith on account of which we are assembled." He 
then ordered a brazier to be brought in and burnt 
the petitions in the presence of the assembly. 

The emperor's address to the Council, de- 
livered in a "calm and gentle tone," was simple, 
dignified, and entirely conciliatory. He earnestly 
exhorted the bishops to peace. " Delay not, then, 
dear friends; delay not, ye ministers of God, and 
faithful servants of him who is our common Lord 
and Saviour: begin from this moment to discard 
the causes of that disunion which has existed 
among you, and remove the perplexities of con- 



First Ecumenical Council. 415 

troversy by embracing the principles of peace. 
For by such conduct you will at the same time be 
acting in a manner most pleasing to the Supreme 
God, and you will confer an exceeding favor on 
me who am your fellow-servant." 

The address was delivered in Latin and was 
immediately repeated in Greek by the imperial 
translator. 

It will help us to get a more vivid idea of 
this memorable Council if I give some brief 
notice of the more distinguished personalities 
who filled places in it. Among these, of course, 
the emperor comes first. Constantine was born 
at Naissus, Upper Moesia, in 274; he was there- 
fore, at the time of the Council, forty-nine years 
old and in his full prime. His father, Constan- 
tius, who was a nephew of the emperor Claudius, 
was made Caesar under Diocletian's complex im- 
perial system in 292, and ruled over Spain, Gaul, 
and Britain. On the abdication of Diocletian 
and Maximian, in 305, he became Augustus, with 
Galerius. 

Constantine's mother was Helena, the daughter 
of an inn-keeper. Since the time of William of 
Malmesbury the idea has been widely current 
that she was a British princess, and that Constan- 
tine, her first and only son, was born in Britain ; 
but the truth is that she was a native of Bithynia 
and she held no higher position than that of con- 
cubine to Constantius until after the birth of her 



4i6 From yerusalem to Niece a. 

son, when she was formally married. When Con- 
stantius became Caesar he divorced Helena be- 
cause Maximian wished him to marry Theodora, 
the emperor's step-daughter. After Constantine 
became emperor, Helena, who had never remar- 
ried, was recalled to the court, and under his 
influence she became a Christian. She is famous 
in ecclesiastical history because of a pilgrimage 
which she made to the Holy Land when she was 
eighty years old, and on which she is said to have 
discovered the true cross of Christ. 

Constantine, at the age of sixteen, was sent to 
the court of Diocletian, where he was kept as a 
sort of hostage for his father. He was a youth 
of great enterprise and courage, and early devel- 
oped exceptional military skill. In 296 he served 
with such distinction in the Egyptian campaign, 
and, later, in the war with Persia, under Galerius, 
that he was appointed a tribune of the first rank. 
Galerius became so jealous of the rising young 
soldier that he sent him on enterprises of unusual 
danger, but the discipline which Constantine thus 
received proved a good schooling for his future 
career. 

In 305, when Constantius became Augustus, 
he requested that his son might be sent to him. 
Permission was given, but, having reason to fear 
that it would be revoked, Constantine left the 
court at once, and made a journey of extraordi- 
nary rapidity across Europe. In the following 
year Constantius died at York, Britain, and with 



First Ecumenical Council. 417 

the sympathy and support of the army Constantine 
assumed the purple. His course from that time 
on was marked by a series of triumphs over his 
rivals until, in October, 312, he defeated Maxen- 
tius at the Milvian Bridge and entered Rome. 
He was now sole emperor of the West. In July 
323 he defeated Licinius at Adrianople, and thus 
became sole ruler of the empire East and West. 
Constantius his father had adopted a tolerant 
policy toward the Christians, and ignored the per- 
secuting edict issued by Galerius. Constantine 
followed his father's policy. Previous to the bat- 
tle at the Milvian Bridge he became a professed 
convert to Christianity, being incited thereto, 
according to Eusebius, by the appearance, a 
little after mid-day, of a blazing Cross in the 
heavens bearing the motto, "By this conquer," 
and by a dream on the following night, in which 
Christ interpreted to him the sign, and directed 
him to make a standard on which the cross, or, 
according to others, a monogram consisting of 
the first two letters of XpicrTos, should be wrought. 
Constantine's conversion, at this time, was not at 
all spiritual, but his favorable attitude towards 
Christianity is apparent in the edict which, con- 
jointly with Licinius, he issued in March, 313, 
known as the "Edict of Milan." This edict 
restored all civil and religious rights to the 
Christians and secured to them full toleration 
throughout the empire. 

27 



418 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

Constantine's military career closed with his 
victory over Licinius, and the remainder of his 
reign was tranquil, save as it was disturbed by 
ecclesiastical strife. At the Council he was in 
the full splendor of his fame as conqueror of all 
his enemies and rivals, and as the first Christian 
emperor. He was tall and powerfully built, with 
a thick neck and broad shoulders, the embodi- 
ment of strength and sturdy health. His com- 
plexion was ruddy, his nose slightly hooked, his 
eyes brilliant and indicative of commanding force, 
and his whole bearing lion-like. His hair and 
beard were slightly curly and rather thin, and 
his voice, usually, was gentle and musical. Clad 
in splendid attire and surrounded by the glamour 
of his achievements and position, he made a pro- 
found impression upon the Council; and yet, 
so independent in thought were these Christian 
bishops, and so fearless were they through their 
training and their convictions, that their final 
decision seems to have been in no way materially 
affected by the imperial presence, since it was 
given in favor of the Alexandrian position, not- 
withstanding that Constantine, in so far as he 
understood the question at issue, was really a 
sympathizer with the Arians. 

Among all those who were present at the 
Council no one has projected so large a figure 
upon the vision of subsequent times as the little 



First Ecumenical Council. 419 

and youthful deacon from Alexandria, Athanasius, 
who was not strictly a member of the Council, but 
only an attendant upon the good bishop Alex- 
ander. He was born in Alexandria about 296, 
and was therefore only twenty-nine years old at 
the time of the Council. Little is known of 
his family, save that an aunt of his suffered from 
Arian cruelty during his second exile. He seems 
to have been poor in material goods, but in the 
intellectual atmosphere of the Egyptian Athens 
he acquired a substantial education. Of his boy- 
hood Rufinus tells us the following story: One 
day Alexander, the bishop, looking from his win- 
dow towards the sea, saw some boys playing on 
the beach, in imitation of the church ceremonial. 
After a little time, fearing that the game was 
drawing too near to sacrilege, Alexander called 
the boys into his presence, and then found that 
one of them, named Athanasius, had played the 
part of a bishop and, as such, had baptized several 
of his companions, who had never previously 
received the rite. After consulting with his 
clergy, the bishop determined to recognize this 
baptism as valid, and he commended the boy- 
bishop and his companions to their respective 
relations to be trained for the service of the 
Church. There is a serious chronological ob- 
jection to this story, since at the time when 
Alexander became bishop Athanasius must have 
been quite seventeen years old, and, therefore, a 



420 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

rather large boy to be playing at church. How- 
ever, this is true, that his unusual ability was 
early recognized, and he became an inmate of 
Alexander's house as his companion and secre- 
tary. It was both a fortunate and an agreeable 
position for the youth, since it afforded him ex- 
ceptional opportunities for education, and Alex- 
ander was a man of sweet and lovable temper. 
Athanasius gave himself assiduously to the study 
of Christian theology. As early as 318, about 
the 'beginning of the controversy between Arius 
and Alexander, he produced two works, or essays, 
one entitled, "Against the Greeks," and the other 
entitled, "On the Incarnation." Of the latter 
writing Moehler says, that it is "the first attempt 
that had been made to present Christianity and 
the chief circumstances of the life of Jesus Christ 
under a scientific aspect. By the sure tact of his 
noble and Christian nature, everything is referred 
to the Person of the Redeemer: everything rests 
upon Him; He appears throughout." In the 
former writing he departed from the method of 
previous apologists ; for, disregarding the absurd 
and immoral stories of the gods which they had 
repeatedly exposed and ridiculed, he attacked the 
very basis of pagan theology. His conception 
of nature was determined by his fundamental 
principle of the Divine Immanence, and in this 
principle he found the perfectly effective argu- 
ment against polytheism. " The all-powerful and 



First Ecumenical Council. 421 

perfect reason of the Father," he said, "pene- 
trating the universe, developing everywhere its 
forces, illuminating with His light things visible 
and invisible, made of them all one whole and 
bound them together, allowing nothing to escape 
from His powerful action, vivifying and preserv- 
ing all beings in themselves, and in the harmony 
of the creation." 

Athanasius was ordained deacon about this 
time and placed at the head of the Alexandrian 
deacons. He threw himself into the Arian con- 
troversy with all the ardor of a fervid tempera- 
ment and a profound conviction of the truth of 
the orthodox conception. Until the time of the 
Council, however, he kept his own personality 
in the back-ground, and did his work chiefly as 
an assistant of Alexander. 

In the Council, where he quickly became the 
leading figure, and a tower of strength to Alex- 
ander and his companions, he showed himself a 
keen disputant, a close reasoner, and a ready 
and fluent interpreter of Scripture. "He so well 
defended the doctrines of the apostles," says 
Theodoret, " that he obtained the approbation of 
all who upheld the truth, and excited the enmity 
of those who opposed it. " 

Within a year after the Council, Alexander 
died, and Athanasius was chosen as his suc- 
cessor. His personal appearance was not calcu- 
lated at first sight to make any great impression 



422 From yerusalem to Niccsa. 

upon beholders. He was short of stature, almost 
-dwarfish, and had a slight stoop. He had a 
hooked nose and a short beard which spread out 
at the sides. But there must have been some- 
thing more than ordinary in his countenance, 
especially when it was illuminated by the excite- 
ment of debate. Gregory Nazianzen tells us, 
that he had "almost angelic beauty of face and 
expression." 

Of Arius I have already given some account ; 
it remains only for me to sketch his personal 
appearance. At the time of the Council he was 
about sixty years old, more than double the age 
of his chief antagonist. He was tall and lean, 
with a certain sinuous motion of his body, — 
like that of a snake, his antagonists said. He 
had an emaciated and pallid countenance and a 
downcast look. His abundant hair was long and 
tangled. He had, however, a singularly sweet 
voice and an earnest and winning manner, and he 
displayed at times a kind of wild and passionate 
eloquence. He was a man of severely ascetic 
temper and habits, and exercised an unusual de- 
gree of personal fascination over his followers. 

The aged Alexander, bishop of the most intel- 
lectual diocese in Christendom at that time, was 
one of the foremost in dignity if not in intellec- 
tual force. Of all the bishops present in the 



First Ecumenical Council. 423 

Council he was the only one who bore the title 
of Papa, or Pope. That term had been used to 
designate the Christian bishop in Carthage as 
well as in Alexandria, but, as far as we can learn, 
in no other part of Christendom. Alexander's 
influence on the discussions was completely over- 
shadowed by that of his able deacon Athanasius. 
On account of his dignity and position Alexander 
was chosen one of the presidents of the Council, 
in company with Eustathius, the pious, learned, 
and eloquent bishop of Antioch, and probably 
also Eusebius of Caesarea. 

High in the esteem of the Council was the 
already venerable Hosius, bishop of Corduba, or 
Cordova, in Spain. For nearly half a century 
he was the foremost bishop of his time. He was 
born in Spain about the year 256, and was there- 
fore nearly or quite seventy years old at the time 
of the Council. He lived to be over a hundred, 
and sustained an important relation to the con- 
troversies that disturbed the church subsequent 
to the Council. Hosius was much revered and 
trusted by Constantine, who sought his advice in 
ecclesiastical matters. His spirit was uniformly 
mild and conciliatory. 

Another important figure was that of Eusebius of 
Caesarea, who had been a pupil and friend of Pam- 
philus, whose name he took, so that he is known 
in history as Eusebius Pamphili. Pamphilus, who 



424 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

was at once student and saint, lover of learn- 
ing and lover of God, had sealed his life-long 
confession of his Master with his blood in 309. 
Eusebius was the most learned man and the most 
accomplished and famous writer of his time. To 
him we are indebted for the earliest and most 
important history of the first three centuries. 
He has been justly called "the father of Eccle- 
siastical History." He was the confidant of the 
emperor, and, in the Council, occupied the first 
seat to the right of Constantine. 

Eusebius of Nicomedia, the most distinguished 
representative of the Arian movement, the leader 
rather than the follower of Arius, was a man of 
considerable learning and undoubted energy. 
According to Ammianus Marcellinus he was a 
distant relative of the emperor Julian and there- 
fore, possibly, a relative of Constantine. He 
seems to have been a friend and supporter of 
Licinius, and, after the latter's fall, to have 
maintained sympathetic relations with his widow, 
Constantia, the sister of Constantine. Undoubt- 
edly she protected him from the natural conse- 
quences of his devotion to her brother's previous 
rival. He became a bitter and persistent foe of 
Athanasius. 

Among the more picturesque figures were 
James, bishop of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, con- 



First Ecumenical Council. 425 

spicuous for the scars which he had received 
in the persecution by Maximian, and famed for 
many miracles; Nicholas, bishop of Myra, famed 
for his piety and asceticism; the latter he is said 
to have practised even when he was an infant, 
abstaining from his mother's breast on Wednes- 
days and Fridays, the canonical fast days; and 
Paphnutius, a bishop of Upper Thebes, eminent 
for piety and good sense, who had one eye torn 
out and one leg mutilated in the persecution by 
Maximian, and therefore was much honored as a 
Confessor. Constantine is said to have felt such 
regard for this man that he kissed the place where 
his eye had been torn out, and pressed his purple 
robe against the Confessor's mutilated leg. To 
Paphnutius were ascribed many miracles. 

Spyridon, a bishop of Cyprus, had been a shep- 
herd; but, as Socrates tells us, "so great was his 
sanctity while a shepherd that he was thought 
worthy of being made a shepherd of men." He 
was therefore made bishop of one of the cities 
in Cyprus named Trimithuntis. Spyridon, how- 
ever, did not cease to feed his sheep. Among 
the extraordinary things related of him are the 
following: Some thieves, one midnight, planned 
to carry off his sheep ; but these were protected 
by Divine Power, and the thieves suddenly found 
themselves held fast by invisible bands in the 
fold. In the morning they were discovered by 



426 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

the good bishop with their hands tied behind 
their backs. He prayed with them, and then 
set them free, "exhorting them to support them- 
selves by honest labor, and not to take anything 
unjustly." He was evidently a man of some 
humor, for when he sent the thieves away, he gave 
them a ram, in order, as he said, that they might 
not "appear to have watched all night in vain." 
Another story tells us that his virgin daughter 
Irene, who shared in her father's piety, had been 
intrusted with an ornament of considerable value. 
This, for security, she had hidden in the ground. 
Some time afterwards she died without making 
known the hiding-place of the treasure. When 
the owner of the ornament finally came to claim 
his property, not finding Irene, he alternately 
charged her father with an attempt at fraud, and 
besought him with tears to restore the deposit. 
The remainder of the story I tell in the words of 
Socrates: "The old man, regarding this person's 
loss as his own misfortune, went to the tomb of 
his daughter, and called upon God to show him 
in anticipation the promised resurrection. Nor 
was he disappointed in his hope; for the virgin 
again reviving appeared to her father, and having 
pointed out to him the spot where she had hidden 
the ornament, she once more departed." 

Among the delegates was Acesius, bishop of a 
Novatian sect. The presence of this schismat- 



First Ecumenical Council. 427 

ical ecclesiastic by invitation of the emperor is 
illustrative of Constantine's desire for ecclesias- 
tical harmony. Acesius was one of those who 
held that a person who had committed mortal sin 
after baptism could not be again received to the 
Communion; he should be exhorted to repent- 
ance, but must not expect remission from the 
priests, though he might be forgiven by God, 
who alone had power to forgive sins. Declaring 
his views to the emperor, near the close of the 
Council, it is said that he was facetiously advised 
by Constantine to " place a ladder and climb alone 
into heaven." 

There was also Theophilus, the Goth, who 
was the predecessor and teacher of Ulfilas, the 
famous Arian missionary to the Goths and the 
translator of the sacred Scriptures into the Gothic 
tongue. 

Carthage was represented by its bishop, Cseci- 
lian, who had long been in the midst of a violent 
contention in Carthage, where he had stood as 
the leader of the moderate party, and resisted 
the craze of the zealots for martyrdom and their 
implacableness towards the " lapsed. " 

The bishop of Rome, Sylvester, was not 
present, his great age preventing him from mak- 
ing the "long journey to Nicaea. He was repre- 



428 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

sented, however, by the two presbyters, Victor 
and Vicentius, who, in accordance with the im- 
perial provision for the bishops, probably would 
have accompanied him had he been able to attend 
the Council. These men seem to have had no 
special prominence or influence in the Council. 
Rome's day had not yet come. 

The debate in the Council opened with a vio- 
lent controversy, each party vehemently charging 
error upon the other and as vehemently refuting 
countercharges. The Arian party was led by the 
three Bithynian bishops, Eusebius of Nicomedia, 
Theognis of Nicaea, and Maris of Chalcedon. 
The party of Alexander was led, not by the bishop 
himself, but by his deacon, Athanasius. Besides 
these two parties there was a third, consisting, 
at the beginning of the Council, of the majority 
of the bishops, led by Eusebius of Caesarea. 
These, who were theological disciples of Origen, 
occupied a middle ground and shaded off, by 
degrees, on the one hand toward the views of 
Athanasius, and, on the other, toward the views 
of Arius. Stanley, with characteristic optimism, 
pleclares that the discussion was based, not on 
the principle of authority, save as that appeared 
in the appeal to the sacred Scriptures, but on the 
principle of free inquiry; and the right of free 
expression of opinion was recognized. But this 
judgment must be taken with a considerable 



First Ecumenical Council. 429 

grain of salt. In the course of the discussion, a 
creed was produced which had been signed by 
the eighteen Arian bishops. This creed is not 
reported, but it evidently set forth extreme Arian 
views, for it was received, not in accordance with 
"the principle of free inquiry," and a recognition 
of "the right of free expression of opinion," but 
with "tumultuous disapprobation," and was torn 
in pieces on the spot. So vehement was the 
opposition to it that all the signers but two, 
Theonas and Secundus, at once gave up Arius 
and he was expelled from the Council. Eusebius 
of Caesarea then presented a creed which had 
been in use, certainly since his childhood, in the 
see of Caesarea. It is as follows: — 

"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of 
all things both visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Word of God, God of God, Light of Light, 
Life of Life, the only begotten Son, the First-born of every 
creature, begotten of the Father before all worlds, by whom 
also all things were made. Who for our salvation was 
made flesh, and lived amongst men, and suffered, and 
rose again on the third day, and ascended to the Father, 
and shall come in glory to judge the quick and the dead. 
And we believe in one Holy Ghost. Believing each of 
them to be and to have existed, the Father, only the 
Father, and the Son, only the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
only the Holy Ghost : As also our Lord sending forth His 
own disciples to preach, said : ' Go and teach all nations, 
baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the 



430 From J erusalem to Niccea. 

Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; ' concerning which things 
we affirm that this is so, and that we so think, and that 
it has long so been held, and that we remain steadfast to 
death for this faith, anathematizing every godless heresy. 
That we have thought these things from our heart and 
soul, from the time that we have known ourselves, and 
that we now think and say thus in truth, we testify in 
the name of Almighty God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
being able to prove even by demonstration, and to per- 
suade you that in past times also thus we believed and 
preached." 

This Creed the Arian minority were willing to 
adopt, and it was approved by the emperor; but 
the Alexandrian party were suspicious of a state- 
ment of doctrine that Arians could accept, and 
they held off. Then a letter from Eusebius of 
Nicomedia was produced, in which the writer 
declared that the application to Christ of the 
term Homoousion (ofjuoovo-tov, "of the same sub- 
stance"), was absurd. This letter, like the Arian 
creed, was torn in pieces amidst great excite- 
ment, and the fatal word, that was to be the 
watchword in so many bitter conflicts, was 
adopted by the Alexandrian wing and promptly 
applied to all others as a shibboleth. 

"Homoousion" was not a new word. It had 
been used by Irenaeus in his criticism of the 
Gnostic theories of Valentinus, and, later, it was 
used as a test of orthodoxy in the trial of Paul 
of Samosata. It was denounced by the Arians as 



First Ecumenical Council. 431 

savoring of Sabellianism, and defended by the 
orthodox as combating polytheism. In the midst 
of the struggle, however, the word was adopted 
by the emperor, as a conciliatory measure, prob- 
ably under the influence of Hosius, and finally 
was acceded to with certain qualifications, per- 
haps also with certain mental reservations, by 
the party of Eusebius of Caesarea. The creed 
was then agreed upon and, in the course of a 
little time, was signed by nearly or quite all of 
the bishops. Constantine, though he had leaned 
decidedly toward the semi-Arianism of Eusebius, 
approved the decision of the bishops. Eusebius 
took a day for consideration. He found that 
Constantine understood the word " Homoousion " 
in a sense accordant with his own previous views, 
and in the same sense he also accepted it. 

This creed has passed through such modifica- 
tions in later times that I give the form in which 
it was adopted by the Council of Nicaea: — ■ 

" We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker 
of all things both visible and invisible ; 

" And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, be- 
gotten of the Father, only-begotten, that is to say, of the 
substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, 
very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one 
substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, 
both things in heaven and things upon earth, — who for 
us men and for our salvation came down and was made 
flesh, and was made man, suffered, and rose again on the 



432 From Jerusalem to Niccua. 

third day, and went up into the heavens, and will come 
again to judge the living and the dead ; 

" And in the Holy Ghost. 

" But those that say, ' there was when He was not,' and 
' before He was begotten He was not,' and that ' He came 
into existence from not-being,' or who profess that the 
Son of God is of different substance (v7ro<rrao-ea>s) or 
essence (ovo-ias), or that He is created, or changeable, or 
variable, are anathematized by the Catholic Church." 

Eusebius of Nicomedia and the bishops of 
Nicaea and Chalcedon, Theognis and Maris, still 
hesitated. The former consulted Constantia, the 
emperor's sister, and she persuaded him to com- 
ply in the interests of peace. They all then 
subscribed, slyly inserting, it is said, an Iota (i) 
into the word " Homoousion " ("of the same sub- 
stance "), making it read " Homoiousion " (ofiotov- 
o-lovj "of like substance"), but they refused to 
approve the anathemas pronounced against Arius. 
Eusebius and Theognis were deposed and ordered 
into exile, but Constantia interceded for them, and 
they submitted, and were received and subscribed 
the creed. The bishops Theonas and Secundus, 
the deacon Euzoius, the reader Achillas, and the 
presbyter Saras, were banished, but, according 
to statements made by Philostorgius, Socrates, 
and Jerome, they also were ultimately recalled 
and allowed to subscribe. Arius disappeared, 
but it seems that he too came back, and the 
only penalty inflicted on him was a prohibition 



First Ecumenical Council. 433 

against his returning to Alexandria. His book, 
"Thalia," was condemned and burnt. 

Of the debate on the Easter question we have 
no record. The letter of the Council which 
communicated its decisions to the Churches con- 
tains the following statement as to the conclusion 
reached : — 

" We have also gratifying intelligence to communicate 
to you relative to unity of judgment on the subject of the 
most holy feast of Easter ■ for this point has been happily 
settled through your prayers ; so that all the brethren in 
the East who have heretofore kept this festival when the 
Jews did, will henceforth conform to the Romans and to 
us, and to all who from the earliest time have observed 
our period of celebrating Easter." 

Although in some quarters and among a few 
minor sects the custom still continued of cele- 
brating the Easter festival on the fourteenth 
Nisan, the controversy on this subject practically 
ended with the Council of Nicaea. 

A more important matter for the Council to 
settle was that of the Meletian schism. Of this 
schism I have already given some account. 1 By 
the decree of the Council, Meletius was allowed 
to retain his episcopal dignity, but he was de- 
prived of all authority either to ordain or to nom- 
inate for ordination, and those who had been 
appointed by him to ecclesiastical office were 

1 See page 396. 
28 



434 From Jerusalem to Niccza. 

required to be reordained before admission to 
the Communion and to rank as ministers. Even 
then they were to be accounted as inferior to 
those who had been ordained previously by Alex- 
ander. Meletius retired to his see of Lycopolis 
and was silent until after the death of Alexander; 
but he took part in the controversies which arose 
about Athanasius, and, before his death, contrary 
to the decree of the Council, he nominated a friend 
as his successor in the episcopate. His followers 
were gradually absorbed into the Arian party. 

The Council promulgated twenty canons on 
discipline. The first fixed the incapacity of 
eunuchs either to receive ordination or to retain 
ecclesiastical office if previously ordained. The 
second prohibited the choice of any one as pres- 
byter or bishop who had not long been baptized 
or had not received full instruction. The third 
guarded the purity of the clergy. The fourth 
required that the consecration of a bishop should 
be, if possible, by all the bishops of the province, 
but it allowed his consecration by three bishops, 
provided that the consent of the absent bishops 
had been obtained in writing, and that the conse- 
cration should be finally confirmed by the metro- 
politan. The fifth interdicted any one wh6 had 
been excommunicated by his own bishop from be- 
ing received to the communion by other bishops, 
and provided for semi-annual synods in each 
province to be held in the spring and autumn. 



First Ecumenical Council. 435 

The sixth defined the relations between bishops 
and their metropolitans, and the question of epis- 
copal jurisdiction. The seventh conceded to the 
bishop of i^Elia Capitolina, the new city that had 
been built on the site of Jerusalem, the second 
place of honor. The eighth provided for the 
return of those who had been clerical members 
of the sect known as the Cathari to the bosom 
of the Church. The ninth and tenth declared null 
and void the ordination of presbyters made with- 
out proper inquiry; of those who had confessed 
sins committed before ordination; and of those 
who had been ordained in ignorance, or whose 
sins had come to light after ordination. The 
eleventh and twelfth dealt with the "lapsed," pre- 
scribing the conditions for their readmission to 
the Communion. The thirteenth forbade the 
denial of the Communion to any one who was 
likely to die. The fourteenth directed that cate- 
chumens who had relapsed must remain three 
years among the "hearers." The fifteenth and 
sixteenth forbade the translation of bishops from 
one see to another, and the removal of presbyters 
or deacons from their own church to another. 
The seventeenth commanded the deposition of 
clergy who lent money on usury. The eighteenth 
prohibited deacons from exercising any function 
that belongs to a presbyter. The nineteenth 
required followers of Paul of Samosata to be 
rebaptized and, in the case of clergy, also to be 



436 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

reordained. The twentieth ordered all persons 
to pray standing on Sundays and during the time 
between Easter and Pentecost. 

It was proposed to pass another canon estab- 
lishing the celibacy of the clergy, but this was 
defeated, mainly by the influence of Paphnutius, 
who was himself a celibate. He earnestly en- 
treated the bishops "not to impose so heavy a 
yoke on the ministers of religion," defended 
marriage as "honorable among all," and warned 
them of the danger to morality, and the injury to 
the Church that would surely result from too great 
stringency. Having once more vindicated the 
chastity of the marital relation, he expressed the 
opinion that those who "had previously entered 
on their sacred calling should abjure matrimony, 
according to the ancient tradition of the Church; 
but that no one should be separated from her to 
whom, while yet unordained, he had been legally 
united." The whole assembly listened to his rea- 
soning, and all debate on this point ceased. " His 
speech," says Stanley, "produced a profound sen- 
sation. His own austere life of unblemished celi- 
bacy gave force to every word that he uttered ; he 
showed that rare excellence of appreciating diffi- 
culties which he himself did not feel, and of hon- 
oring a state of life which was not his own." 

The Council closed on the 25th of August. 
During its session two of the bishops, Chrysan- 
thus and Mysonius, had died and were buried in 



First Ecumenical Council. 437 

the cemetery of Nicaea. A legend of later times 
tells us that, when the day for final subscription 
to the decrees of the Council came, the bishops 
took the roll to the grave of the two dead men, 
and, addressing them, as Mohammedans are said 
to address their dead saints, solemnly conjured 
them that if now in the clearness of the heavenly 
vision they still approved, they would come and 
sign the decrees with their brethren. The 
bishops, leaving a blank space on the roll for 
the signatures, sealed and laid it on the tomb. 
After spending the night in prayer, in the morn- 
ing they returned, and, breaking the seal, found 
the blank spacefilled with the following: "We, 
Chrysanthus and Mysonius, fully-concurring with 
the first Holy and CEcumenical Synod, although 
removed from earth, have signed the volume with 
our own hands." 

At the conclusion of the Council, or late during 
its session (Stanley gives the date as July 25), 
Constantine celebrated his Vicennalia, the com- 
pletion of the twentieth year of his reign. He 
gave a brilliant and sumptuous banquet to all the 
bishops, showing them much honor and bestowing 
on them gifts — "to each individual according 
to his rank." He also made them a farewell 
address, in which, according to Eusebius, — 

"He recommended them to be diligent in the mainten- 
ance of peace, to avoid contentious disputations amongst 
themselves, and not to be jealous if any one of their num- 



438 From Jerusalem to Niccsa. 

ber should appear pre-eminent for wisdom and eloquence, 
but to esteem the excellence of one a blessing common to 
all. On the other hand, he reminded them that the more 
gifted should forbear to exalt themselves to the prejudice 
of their humbler brethren, since it is God's prerogative to 
judge of real superiority. Rather should they consider- 
ately condescend to the weaker, remembering that absolute 
perfection in any case is a rare quality indeed. Each, 
then, should be willing to accord indulgence to the other 
for slight offences, to regard charitably and pass over mere 
human weakness ; holding mutual harmony in the highest 
honor, that no occasion of mocking might be given by 
their dissensions to those who are ever ready to blaspheme 
the word of God." 

He said much more in a similar vein, and then 
gave the bishops permission to return to their 
respective countries. "This they did with joy," 
says Eusebius, "and," he adds, with almost gro- 
tesque disregard, or ignorance, of the truth, 
"thenceforward that unity of judgment at which 
they had arrived in the emperor's presence con- 
tinued to prevail, and those who had long been 
divided were bound together as members of the 
same body." The bishops were provided with 
means for their homeward journey at the public 
expense, and Constantine sent largesses of money 
to be distributed among the people in various 
parts of the empire. He also wrote a letter to 
the churches, announcing the decisions of the 
Council, especially with reference to the Easter 



First Ecumenical Council. 439 

question, and exhorting all to obey them. A 
copy of this letter was sent to every 'province. 

The Great Council which had been called to 
end the controversy begun in Alexandria was in 
fact but the beginning of a fierce struggle that 
continued with wavering fortunes for Athanasian 
and Arian until near the end of the century, 
when it was, in a manner, settled in favor of 
the orthodox party by the action of the emperor, 
Theodosius. During fifty years party was arrayed 
against party and bishop against bishop. Now 
one triumphed, and now the other; and in all 
parties there developed great heat and bitterness 
of spirit, and a violence of contention that some- 
times passed beyond the bounds of the most 
acrimonious debate, and issued in blows and 
bloodshed. A new class of martyrs arose — the 
martyrs to theological hate — and often those that 
suffered were quite as wrong in spirit as those 
who inflicted the suffering. Of Athanasius it 
should be said that he was conspicuous not only 
for his abilities, but also for the sanity and, con- 
sidering all the circumstances, the fairness of his 
temper. His life was a succession of conflicts 
and enforced exiles from his see in Alexandria, 
but finally the principle for which he contended 
prevailed. 

The real point at issue — the truth towards 
which the Christian Church was almost uncon- 
sciously moving — was not the mere Triplicity 



44-0 From Jerusalem, to Niccza. 

of the Divine Nature, but the reality of the 
Incarnation, — God in man, and in His world. 
No one seems clearly to have seen this save 
Athanasius, and even he saw it only in part, 
for he did not grasp the full breadth of the idea; 
but he saw it with sufficient clearness to appre- 
ciate its vital importance and to stand in defence 
of it, if necessary, against the whole world. He 
felt that the fight was a struggle for the suprem- 
acy of the one truth which underlay the whole 
Christian philosophy and scheme of redemption, 
— the truth that was at once the only efficacious 
and the final answer to Paganism and Gnosticism, 
and the only ground of any reasonable hope for 
the salvation of the world. Salvation could be 
accomplished only by the actual contact and com- 
munication of God with man, therefore Athanasius 
and the bishops who contended in company with 
him held fast to the " Homoousion," — the con- 
substantiality of the Son with the Father. Here- 
in lies the great and lasting significance of the 
Nicene Council. 

" The superficial mind," says Hedge, " is apt to regard 
these questions, which then agitated the Church and the 
world, as empty abstractions, senseless quibbles. But the 
union of God with man is no quibble ; it is a truth of pro- 
found significance ; and the Council of Nicsea which de- 
clared it is one of the most important assemblies that were 
ever convened on this earth : it dates a new era in the 
history of human thought. God in actual contact with 



First Ecumenical Council. 441 

man — God in man and man in God — is the underlying 
idea of the Athanasian dogma which asserts that the Son 
is consubstantial with the Father. Probably Athanasius 
did not perceive the real drift and scope of his doctrine. 
It was only of the person of Christ that he affirmed sub- 
stantial community with God. Christ united in His per- 
son two natures, the human and the divine ; and, by this 
union of God with man in the person of Christ, human 
nature is redeemed and restored to health and God. 
This was the substance of his theology." 

The decision of the Nicene Council, therefore, 
affirmed and fixed a principle back of which the 
Christian Church has never receded and from 
which it has never swerved. The Nicene symbol 
stands also as an historic witness to the fulness 
and richness of the Christian conception of God, 
in contrast with the weak multifariousness of 
polytheism and the barrenness of a bald deism. 
Thus the Christian conception of God recognizes 
and fulfils all that was true in the different 
schools of Greek philosophy. 

Arianism continued in the Church with con- 
siderable force for three hundred years. The 
Goths, who were converted to Christianity by 
Ulfilas, were all Arians. Alaric, Genseric, and 
Theodoric the Great, who was the hero of the 
Nibelungen Lied, were Arians. The Lombards 
were Arians till the close of the sixth century. 
Arianism also had a strong hold, for a time, upon 
Spain and Southern France; but, by the begin- 



44 2 From Jerusalem to Niccea. 

ning of the seventh century, it was practically 
extinct. 

Through all the fierce theological, and conse- 
quent political, controversies that disturbed the 
Church for nearly three centuries after, the Great 
Council, the Nicene Creed survived. It is still 
the creed of the whole vast Greek Church; 
with some modifications, it is also the creed of 
the Latin Church; and, in its original form and 
stripped of its condemnatory clauses, it is sub- 
stantially the creed of universal Christendom. 
Under the influence mainly of Augustine, the 
Latin theology soon dominated the Western 
Church, and gradually excluded or suppressed the 
richer and nobler thought of the Greek Fathers. 
The Latin theology to some extent obscured and, 
while seeming to affirm, almost denied the fun- 
damental and structural doctrine of the Incarna- 
tion, the enunciation and persistent defence of 
which was the chief merit of Athanasius. That 
doctrine, however, survived through all strife, 
and now, amidst the changes and even the wreck 
of creeds, it still survives. In its real essence, 
it is not an arithmetical threeness of persons in- 
explicably inhering in one substance, so that we 
have the impossible conception — three equals 
one, — as it so often appears in dogmatic the- 
ology; but it is the reality of God in Christ, as 
the revelation and archetype of God in humanity, 
and the pledge of the perfect fulfilment of man's 



First Ecumenical Council. 



443 



life by his perfect union with the divine, "being 
filled with all the fulness of God." It is the 
supreme doctrine of Christianity, — the Incar- 
nation, the immanence of God in the realm of 
personality as well as in the realm of nature. Re- 
enforced by enlarged knowledge of the world and 
man, and by higher and purer conceptions of God, 
that doctrine rises afresh in the consciousness of 
the Church with power to recreate theology and 
to inspire and lead the thought of Christendom to 
a broader and truer and more spiritual philosophy 
of divine revelation and human history. 



A P P E N D I X. 



ON page 252 I have made the statement that "the 
works of Aristides are wholly lost." While this 
volume was passing through the press there came into my 
hand a copy of the recently found "Apology of Aris- 
tides." This interesting document is a Syriac version 
which was discovered on Mt. Sinai by Prof. J. Rendel 
Harris, and is issued as No. I. of Vol. I. of Texts and 
Studies, published by the Cambridge University Press, 
under the general editorship of J. Armitage Robinson, 
B. D. No. I. comprises, besides the Syrian text of "The 
Apology of Aristides," and several Armenian fragments, 
an introduction, an English translation, and notes on the 
Syriac, by J. Rendel Harris, M.A., and an Appendix con- 
•laining the main portion of the " Original Greek Text " of 
the Apology, as it is preserved in the story of " Barlaam 
and Josaphat," to which is prefixed a critical introduction, 
by J. Armitage Robinson, B. D. 

Of "The Apology of Aristides" Eusebius gives a brief 
notice, according to which it must have been written as 
early, at least, as 133 a.d., and possibly as early as 124. 
Professor Harris makes an ingenious argument to prove 
that the date cannot be earlier than the early years of 
Antoninus Pius, i. e. soon after 138. The question of 
date is still open, however, with a strong probability in 
favor of 133 as against any later date. 



446 Appendix, 

At any rate, it is clear that in the recently discovered 
document we have the earliest extant Christian apologetic 
writing. 

The " Apology " is simple and clear in style, and is 
occupied mainly with an exhibition of the absurdity of 
the heathen religious ideas and worship, the defectiveness 
and errors of the Jew's religion, and the simplicity and 
purity of the Christian faith, character, and life. 

Perhaps its chief significance lies in the evidence which 
it affords that as early as the second quarter of the second 
century the Church had a Symbol of Faith, and that this 
symbol already embodied the main elements of the Apos- 
tle's Creed. Professor Harris thus restores the fragments 
of Aristides' Creed : — 

" We believe in one God, Almighty 
Maker of Heaven and Earth : 
And in Jesus Christ His Son 

Born of the Virgin Mary : 

He was pierced by the Jews : 
He died and was buried : 
The third day He rose again: 
He ascended into Heaven ; 

He is about to come to judge 



INDEX. 



Acesius, bishop of a Novatian Sect, 
426, 427. 

Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, 
opponent of Arius, 398-400 ; de- 
scribed, 422, 423. 

Alexandria, its Christian School, 
333-392; a centre of intellectual 
life, 334; the Jews in it, 334, 335 ; 
its Christian Catechetical School, 

337-34°- 

Alexandrian School of literature and 
philosophy, 333, 334; divided into 
two schools, 333. 

Antoninus Pius, his treatment of 
Christians, 187, 188. 

Apollonius, of Tyana, 182. 

Apologies for Christianity, 219-275; 
the extant fill 24 volumes, 220 ; 
two classes of them, — in reply to 
the Jews, 221 ; in reply to pagans, 
221-275 ; two schools of their 
writers, 222, 223 ; their influence 
on the Roman emperors, 223 ; the 
Christian virtues the most effec- 
tive, 224 ; the Greek and Latin 
contrasted, 224 ; the " Epistle to 
Diognetus" analyzed and charac- 
terized, 225-227 ; Justin Martyr's, 
233-237 ; Tatian's, 239-246 ; Athe- 
nagoras's, 247-252 ; Theophilus's, 
252 ; Minucius Felix's, 253 ; Lac- 
' tantius's, 253. 

Apostasies of early Christians, 202, 
203 ; three classes of them, 202, 



203 ; the object of persecutions, 
205. 

Apostles' Creed, its origin and char- 
acter, 277. 

Apostles of Christianity, character of 
the original ones, 47, 48. 

" Apostolic Constitutions," contents 
and character of the work. 118- 
121 ; rejected as spurious by Eu- 
sebius and Athanasius, 119; ac- 
cepted as apostolic by Whiston, 
120 ; Bunsen on their origin, 
120. 

Apostolic Fathers, the, 99-162 ; their 
number, 99 ; " Didache, or the 
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," 
101, 123-129. 

Archbishop, the term first applied to 
all metropolitans, y^- 

Arianism, its adherents, 441. 

Aristides, 252 ; his Apology, 445. 

Arius, his controversy with Alexan- 
der, 396 ; his doctrines, 398-400 ; 
excommunicated by a synod of 
bishops, 400; his doctrinal book 
of songs, 400 ; Dean Stanley on 
ibid., 400 ; finds friends in Pales- 
tine, 401; accuses Alexander of 
persecution, 401 ; explains his the- 
ological views, 402 ; personal ap- 
pearance, 422. 

Arnobius, 223. 

Athanasius, a leading figure at the 
Council of Nicaea, 421 ; his per- 



44 8 



Index. 



sonal appearance, 422 ; his quali- 
ties, 439 ; maintained the reality of 
the Incarnation, 440 ; why he held 
fast to the term " Homoousion," 
440 ; Dr. Hedge on his theology, 
441. 

Athenagoras, his character, 247; his 
book "Concerning the Resurrec- 
tion," 246; his "Embassy" ana- 
lyzed, 247-252 ; his ideas of in- 
spiration and the Logos, 251. 

Aurelian, Roman Emperor, 209. 

Aurelius, Marcus, 189-197 ; the se- 
verest persecutor of the early 
Christians, 1 89 ; his inconsistencies, 
189 ; his " Meditations " quoted, 
189, 190; influenced by popular 
clamor, 190 ; Christian apologies 
addressed to him, 192 ; noted mar- 
tyrs in his reign, 194-197. 

Baptism, by laymen, in the Early 
Church, 57; immersion its form 
for thirteen centuries, 57; Dean 
Stanley on its form in the Early 
Church, 57, 58; the Anglican ru- 
bric for that of infants, 58 ; how 
regarded in the Early Church, 86- 
89 ; the term used as the equivalent 
of regeneration and conversion, 
87; Justin Martyr on it, 87; Ter- 
tullian and Cyprian on it, 88 ; the 
" Teaching of the Twelve" on it, 
89 ; infant, not practised till Cy- 
prian's time, 91 ; infant, opposed 
by Tertullian, 91. 

Bardaisan, the Gnostic, his hymns 
and doctrine, 311, 312. 

Barnabas, his supposed epistle ana- 
lyzed, 1 21-123 ; its authorship 
doubtful, 122. 

Basilides, the Gnostic, his life and 
teachings, 292-301 ; Bunsen on 
him, 301 ; character of his follow- 
ers, 302, 303. 



Basilides, Roman officer, his remark- 
able conversion, 198. 

Birks, on the " Epistle to Diogne- 
tus," 227. 

Bishop, meaning of the word, his 
earliest function, 67 ; the term 
interchangeable with " presbyter," 
68; when his office was first de- 
fined, 68 ; causes of development 
of his office, 68, 69 ; Polycarp ap- 
pointed to the office in Smyrna, 
69 ; development of the office in 
Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, 
Corinth, and Rome, 69; also in 
Gaul and Africa, 70 ; first claim 
by one of universal dominion, 70 ; 
absorption by him of administer- 
ing baptism and the communion, 
71; Jerome, on the equivalence 
of bishops and presbyters, 71, 
72. 

Blandina, a slave girl, her martyr- 
dom, 195. 

Bunsen, his characterization of Basi- 
lides, 301. 

C^cilian, bishop of Carthage, 427. 

Caracalla, Roman Emperor, 200, 
3 6 4. 

Carpocrates, the Gnostic, his teach- 
ings, 290-292 ; licentiousness of 
his followers, 292. 

Catacombs, their discovery, 22 ; 
prove the great number of early 
Christians in Rome, 23 ; estimates 
of their extent, 23. 

Catechumenate, the, formed, 89. 

Catechumens, defined, 90; divided 
into four classes, 90. 

Celsus, on the multiplication of 
Christians, 30 ; his assault on 
Christianity, 222 ; Origen's reply 
to his book, 222, 371, 372. 

Cerdo, the Gnostic, his doctrines, 
289, 290. 



Index. 



449 



Cerinthus, the Gnostic, his rise and 
religious views, 286-288. 

Christian Catechetical School of 
Alexandria, its origin, purpose, 
and teachings, 337-340 ; attended 
by educated pagans, 338 ~, its defi- 
nition of faith, 338, 339 ; its char- 
acterization of the Gnosis, 23^^ 
339 ; its defence of the study of 
philosophy, 339, 340 ; its begin- 
ning, 340. 

Christian literature, the sub-apostolic 
characterized, 161, 162. 

Christians, the early, their life and 
gospel of love, 48, 49; their volun- 
tary communism, 54 ; their intol- 
erance of paganism, 39, 40, 168 ; 
denounced as atheists, 168 ; re- 
garded as unsocial and " haters of 
the human race," 168, 169 ; de- 
nounced by priests and teachers, 
169 ; make enemies by their pure 
morality, 170 ; charged with licen- 
tiousness, magic, and treason, 171 ; 
Justin Martyr's defence of them, 
171, 172 ; vindicated in the " Epis- 
tle to Diognetus," 172, 173 ; Ter- 
tullian's " Apology " on their 
character, 173; beginning of their 
political persecution, 173, 174; 
persecuted by the Romans, 174; 
their attitude toward the Roman 
state, 176, 177; Ramsay on their 
anti-Roman organization, 177. 

Christianity, the germs of its devel- 
opment found in first three centu- 
ries, 13 ; its early and rapid spread, 
16-22 ; prominent early converts, 
19, 20 ; progress in Africa, Ger- 
many, and Great Britain, 20, 21 ; 
converts in Diocletian's reign, 21, 
22 ; testimony of Tacitus, Pliny, 
and Christian apologists, to the 
number of its early converts, 23- 
31 ; conquers the Roman Empire 



in less than 300 years, 31 ; the 
greatest of spiritual forces, 32; 
co-extensive with the world's civi- 
lization, 32 ; condition of the 
world at its rise, 32-39 ; its diffu- 
sion aided by the moral conditions 
of the world, 35-38 ; causes of its 
rise and early growth, 39-51 ; Gib- 
bon's statement of these causes 
considered, 39-43 ; its rapid spread 
not aided by claims of miraculous 
power, 40-42 ; its triumph a testi- 
mony to its divine origin, 50 ; 
primitive, was non-sacerdotal, 56 ; 
hospitable to all goodness in ideals 
and endeavors, 96 ; began without 
schools, or culture, 99 ; its spread 
not explainable by "natural 
causes," 100, 101; its early strug- 
gle with heathenism, 163-217 ; 
forms of opposition it encoun- 
tered, 164, 165 ; causes of early 
popular antipathy to it, 167-170; 
its apologists, 218-275 ; Jewish 
and pagan arguments against it, 
221, 222; its true defence, 275 ; 
summary of its early history, 393, 

394- 
Church, the Early Christian, its or- 
ganization, 52-98 ; had no ritual, 
ordinances, or distinction of clergy 
and laity, 5 5 ; had no creeds or dog- 
matic tests, its members upon 
one level, 58 ; its officers, 60 ; its 
three orders of ministers, 60 ; its 
worship, 79 ; its controversy over 
time of Easter festival, 79, 80 ; 
simplicity of its worship, 80, 81 ; 
fragments of its hymns, 81, 82 ; 
changes in its views of worship, 
84 ; its observance of the Sabbath 
and the Lord's Day, 84 ; asceti- 
cism in it, 86 ; its first tendency 
toward sacramentalism, 86-89; its 
analogy to the organization of the 



29 



450 



Index. 



Roman Empire, 94 ; review of its 
changes, 94, 96; all types exist 
germinally in it, 97, 98 ; a period 
of obscurity in its history, 100 ; 
its debates regarding "lapsed" 
Christians, 209 ; character of its 
theological controversies, 405, 406. 

Clemens, Flavius, executed by Do- 
mitian, 181. 

Clement of Alexandria (Titus Fla- 
vius Clemens), his hymn, 83 ; on 
pagan religions and philosophies, 
223 ; on the diffusion of Chris- 
tianity, 30 ; his life and character, 
34 2 > 343, 354-35 6 ; his works ana- 
lyzed and characterized, 343-360 ; 
his story of St. John and the rob- 
ber, 344-346 ; his " Exhortation 
to the Greeks," 346-349 ; his 
"Instructor," or "Tutor," ana- 
lyzed, with extracts, 349-360 ; on 
eating, 350; on laughter, 351; 
on the use of the tongue, 351; 
on clothes, 352 ; on fondness for 
jewels, etc., 352, 353 ; on frugality, 
353; on philosophy and Gnosti- 
cism, 355, 356 ; on the relation of 
faith to knowledge, 355, 356; on 
the Incarnation, 356 ; on the 
sources of sin, 356, 357; on pun- 
ishment and salvation, 357, 358; 
on asceticism, 358 ; on the salva- 
tion of all men, 359. 

Clement of Rome, his writings, 101- 
121 ; Lightfoot on the traditions 
concerning him, 101 ; not, probably, 
the martyr-consul, Flavius Clem- 
ens, 103 ; his epistle to the church 
in Corinth characterized, and its 
contents described, 104-108; on 
St. Paul, 105 ; on the reorganiza- 
tion of the Early Church, 106 ; on 
the self-sacrifice of Christians, 107 ; 
his simplicity of mind, 107 ; his 
letter read as Scripture, 107 ; his 



second Epistle to the Corinthians 
analyzed, 108, 109; on the divin- 
ity of Christ, 108 ; on baptism and 
the resurrection, 109; " The Clem- 
entines " ascribed to him, 111. 

" Clementines, The," their author- 
ship, in; contents of "The 
Recognitions," m-116; extract 
from, 114; character of "The 
Homilies," 116,117; anti-Pauline 
spirit, of the work, 1 1 7, 118; Dr. 
Salmon on its doctrinal character, 
118. 

Clergy, the, when first distinguished 
from the laity, 72, y^- 

Commodus, Roman Emperor, favor- 
able to Christians, 197. 

Constantine, becomes Roman Em- 
peror, 214, 215; defeats Maxen- 
tius, 215; his "Edict of Milan," 
215; writes to Alexander and 
Arius, urging a reconciliation, 403, 
404 ; his second letter to Arius, 
405 ; his motives for calling the 
Council of Nicaea, 408; his ap- 
pearance before the Council, 412, 
413 ; his treatment of petitions 
from ecclesiastics, 414 ; his ad- 
dress to the Council of Nicaea, 
414, 415; sketch of his birth and 
career, 415-418; his conversion 
to Christianity, 417; his personal 
appearance, 418 ; approves the 
bishops' decision concerning " Ho- 
moousion," 431 ; banquets the 
bishops of the Council of Nicaea, 
437; his farewell address and lar- 
gesses to them, 437, 438 ; an- 
nounces to the churches the Coun- 
cil's decisions, 438. 

Council, the first Ecumenical, 393— 
443 ; for what purposes called, 
396; Constantine' s motives in call- 
ing it, 408 ; number and character 
of its members and their at ten- 



Index. 



45i 



dants, 409, 410; discussions in the 
.streets, 410 ; where held, 412 ; Con- 
stantine's appearance before it, 
412, 413 ; his address to it, 414, 
415 ; distinguished men in it, 415- 
428 ; its parties, 428 ; its treatment 
of an Arian creed, 429, 430; ex- 
pels Arius, 429; agrees upon a 
creed, 431; creed adopted by it, 
431 ; prohibits Arius from re- 
turning to Alexandria, and burns 
his book, " Thalia," 432 ; its de- 
cision on the Easter question, 
433; its decree concerning the 
Meletian schism, 433, 434 ; pro- 
mulgates twenty canons on disci- 
pline, 434-436 ; refuses to decree 
the celibacy of the clergy, 436; 
its close, 436; legend concerning 
the subscription to its decrees, 
437 ; controversies that followed 
it, 439 ; Dr. Hedge on its impor- 
tance, 440, 441. 
Creed, the Nicsean, its adherents, 
442 ; its vitality, 442 ; its essence, 

442, 443- 
Cyprian convenes a synod in Car- 
thage, 21 ; his caution to the 
clergy, 72; on the equality of 
bishops, 74; a sacerdotalist, 77; 
on baptism, 88 ; on the baptism 
of infants, 91 ; on the Lord's Sup- 
per, 93 ; flees from persecution, 
205 ; his martyrdom, 208. 

Deacons, derivation and meaning 
of the word, 60, 61 ; origin of the 
diaconate, 61, 62; their two func- 
tions in Early Church, 62 ; Uhl- 
horn on their function, 63 ; Dean 
Stanley on the diaconate, 64 ; their 
duties in the Early Church, 64, 65 ; 
their number limited to seven, 65. 

Decius, Roman Emperor, his perse- 
cution of Christians, 200-206 ; his 



edict against them, 201 ; apostasies 
of Christians in his reign, 202, 203. 

Didache, or " The Teaching of the 
Twelve Apostles," 101 ; analyzed, 
123-129 ; when the MSS. was 
discovered, 123; other books con- 
tained in the MSS., 123 ; impor- 
tance of the document, 123; vari- 
ously dated by scholars, 124 ; the 
oldest manual of apostolic teach- 
ing and discipline, 124; quoted, 
125, 126, 128; simplicity of its 
theology, 126 ; on Sunday and 
church officers, 127, 129. 

Diocletian, Roman Emperor, his 
persecution of Christians, 210- 
214 ; associates Galerius with him, 
211; his edicts against Christian 
churches and scriptures, 212-213. 

Dionysius, his life, doctrine, and 
writings, 385,386; Westcott on 
ibid., 386. 

Dogma, the development of Chris- 
tian, 49. 

Domitian, the Roman Emperor, and 
the relatives of Jesus, 182, 183. 

Easter, when first celebrated as a 
festival, 80. 

Ebionites, their religious views, 281- 
283. 

Ecclesiastical Systems, attempts to 
trace them to time of Christ or 
the Apostles, 53. 

Ecumenical Council, the first, at 
Nicaea, 79, 393~443- 

Episcopacy, the causes of its devel- 
opment into a hierarchy, 74 ; 
Lightfoot on its growth during the 
first three centuries, 75 ; its devel- 
opment followed by sacerdotalism, 
76. 

"Epistle to Diognetus," its author- 
ship, 225 ; extracts from, 225-227 ; 
its value, 227. 



452 



Index. 



Eucharist, the, when and how ob- 
served, 91 ; Justin Martyr on it, 
92, 93 ; Tertullian on it, 93 ; Cy- 
prian on it, 94. 

Eulogius, a heathen philosopher, 
vanquished by an aged confessor, 
410-412. 

Eusebius, of Caesarea, confidant of 
the Emperor Constantine, 423 ; 
presents a creed to the Council of 
Nicaea, 429, 430 ; accepts the term 
" Homoousion " in the creed, 431 ; 
criticises Papias, 141. 

Eusebius, of Nicomedia, agrees 
theologically with Arius, 402 ; the 

- foe of Athanasius, 424, 430 ; on 
the application of the term " Ho- 
moousion " to Christ, 430 ; his 
letter to the Nicaean Council 
torn in pieces, 430; subscribes 
the Nicaean creed, after insert- 
ing an Iota into " Homoousion," 
432. 

Fisher, G. P., quoted, $7. 

Galerius, Roman Emperor, perse- 
cutes the Christians, 212, 214; his 
dying edict, 215. 

Gallienus, Roman Emperor, charac- 
terized, 209. 

Gallus, Roman Emperor, persecu- 
tions under him, 206. 

Gibbon, Edward, on the causes of 
the rise and growth of Christianity, 
39-43 ; on the controversies in the 
Church, 405. 

Gnosticism, 277-284 ; its origin, 278 ; 
eclectic, 279 ; its principles and 
characteristics, 279-281; its vari- 
ous forms, 279 ; its sects distin- 
guished, 280; its ideas of Christ 
and redemption, 2S0, 281; sketches 
of its chief representatives, 284- 
326; its good and evil elements, 



326,327; unfairly criticised, 331, 

33 2 - 

Gospel, contents of that preached by 
Christ's disciples, 46; its appeal 
to human reason and to the sensi- 
bility of the wretched, 46; how 
propagated, 47, 48 ; shaped by 
Jewish ideals, 163 ; obstacles to its 
spread, 164. 

Gregory (Thaumaturgus), his life, 
writings, and character, 387-392; 
his panegyric on Origen quoted, 
388-391. 

Hadrian, Roman Emperor, his 
persecution of Christians, 186, 
187. 

Harnack, quoted, toi ; on Irenaeus, 
331 ; on the Valentinian schools, 
310, 311 ; on Marcion, 315. 

Hatch, on the changes in the func- 
tions of the episcopate, 71. 

Hedge, F. H., on the ancient Church 
controversies, 440, 441. 

Helena, wife of Constantius, 416. 

Heracles, bishop of Alexandria, 384, 

385. 

Heresies, — the Struggle within the 
Church, 276-332 ; use of the term 
by Fathers of the Church, 276; 
their treatment by the Early 
Church, 332. 

Hermas, his book, "The Shep- 
herd," analyzed and characterized, 
129 ; Lightfoot on the book, 129; 
the Fathers' opinion of it, 130; 
Athanasius's opinion of it, 131; 
opinions as to its authorship, 131, 
132 ; on divorce and second mar- 
riages. 137 ; on fasting, 137. 

Herrick, his verses on fasting, 138. 

"Homoousion," its religious his- 
tory, 430 ; adopted by Constan- 
tine and the Nicaean Council, 
43 1 - 



Index. 



453 



Hosius, bishop of Cordova, de- 
scribed, 423. 

Hymnology of the Early Church, 82 ; 
Evening Hymn of the Greek 
Church, 82 ; the " Gloria in Ex- 
celsis," 82; a hymn by Clement 
of Alexandria, S3. 

Ignatius, of Antioch, 141-152; au- 
thenticity of his letters, 141- 143; 
his death, 143; legends about him, 
144; a Greek, of Asia Minor, 144; 
thrown to wild beasts at Rome, 
145 ; his letter on his coming mar- 
tyrdom, 145, 146; his letters to the 
churches, 146-151; on the orders 
of the clergy, 148 ; his letter to 
the Magnesians, 148, 149 ; his let- 
ter to the Trallians, 148, 149 ; on 
his own inspiration, 149 ; on the 
Eucharist, 149; on Judaism, 150; 
on Docetism, 150; his silence con- 
cerning a bishop at Rome, 151 ; 
striking passages in his letters, 
151 ; his letter to Polycarp, 151. 

Immersion, baptism by it in Ice- 
land and Russia, 58. 

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, 21 ; on 
the early Christian Church, 26 ; 
his life and works, 330; on Gnos- 
ticism, 330, 331. 

James, bishop of Nisibis, 424, 425. 

Jesus of Nazareth, his teaching, 14, 
15 ; belief of his disciples, 15 ; 
gave a mighty impulse to human 
life, 16; his transcendant person- 
ality, 43-45- 

John, the apostle, tradition concern- 
ing him, 180. 

Judaism, its influence on the Ro- 
mans, 38. 

Justin Martyr, on regeneration by 
baptism, 87 ; his martyrdom in the 
reign of Aurelius, 192 ; incident 



related by him, 193; his origin 
and character, 227, 231 ; his search 
for truth, 228, 229; his account of 
his conversion to Christianity 
229-231 ; his writings, 232; analy- 
sis of his " Dialogue with Try- 
pho," 232, 233; analysis of his 
first Apology, 233, 234 ; of the sec- 
ond, 235, 237 ; contrasts Socrates 
with Christ, 235 ; his doctrine of 
the " spermatic word," 236 ,- his 
martyrdom, 237. 

Lactantius, his "Apology" for 
Christianity, 253. 

Lightfoot, bishop, on Clement of 
Rome, 103; on the Christian ideal, 
56 ; on first appearance of episco- 
pal government, 68 ; on the authen- 
ticity of Ignatius's letters, 142; on 
the persecutions of the church at 
Antioch, 143, 144 ; on authorship 
of the "Epistle to Diognetus," 
225. 

Love-Feasts, discontinued by the 
Roman Christians, 186. 

Lucian, ridicules Christians in his 
" De Morte Peregrini," 222. 

Magus, Simon, his doctrinal scheme, 
284-286; characterized by Tulloch, 
286. 

Manes, sketch of his life, 320-322 ; 
his theological system (Manichae- 
ism) analyzed, 322-326; his oppo- 
sition to the Old Testament, 324 ; 
spread of his doctrines, 326. 

Marcion, the anti-Judaistic Gnostic, 
his history and doctrines, 314-319 ; 
attractiveness and spread of his 
doctrines, 315; his contrasts be- 
tween the Old Testament and the 
New, 318 ; he and his followers 
fundamentally Christian, 321. 



454 



Index. 



Martyr, Justin, his defence of the 
early Christians, 171, 172. 

Maxentius, elected Roman Empe- 
ror, 214 ; defeated by Constantine, 
215. 

Maximin, Roman Emperor, perse- 
cutes the Christians, 200. 

Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis, his 
schism, 396, 397 ; his subsequent 
history, 434. 

Menander, the Gnostic, 286. 

Minucius Felix, his " Octavius," 
252. 

Miracles, sanity of the Christian 
apologists regarding them, 41 ; not 
urged by early Christians in sup- 
port of Christianity, 41. 

Mommsen, Theodor, on the immor- 
ality of Rome, 37. 

Monarchians, their doctrines, 329. 

Montanus, his doctrines, 254, 327, 
328. 

Neo-Platonism, its origin and rep- 
resentatives, 333. 

Nerva, "the Good," stops persecu- 
tion of Christians, 183. 

Nicsea, in Bithynia, described, 406; 
Isnik, its modern representative, 
407; Council called in it by Con- 
stantine, 408-443 (see "Council, 
First Ecumenical "). 

Nicholas, bishop of Myra, 425. 

Ophites, their origin and religious 
system, 312-314. 

Origen, visits churches in Arabia, 
20; on the number of early Chris- 
tians, 30, 31 ; his escape from 
martyrdom, 200 ; his life, labors, 
and character, 360-370; enters the 
Catechetical School of Alexandria, 
360 ; becomes head of the School, 
362 ; his self-denial and toil, 362 ; 
studies Hebrew and Greek litera- 



ture, 363 ; assisted by Ambrosius 
to publish his works, 364, 365 5 
Westcott on his writings, 365 ; 
consecrated as a presbyter, and de- 
posed, 366 ; establishes a catechet- 
ical school at Caesarea, 367; his 
"Exhortation to Martyrdom," 367; 
his devotion to his exegetical stud- 
ies, 368 ; his last works, 368, 369 ; 
subjected to torture, 369 ; his death 
and burial, 369; his mental acute- 
ness and power, 370; his prolific 
production, 370 ; his " Hexapla," 
370, 371 ; his "First Principles," 
371 ; his book against Celsus, 371, 
372; quotation from ibid., t,73~ 
376 ; on allegorism in interpreting 
Scripture, 376; on the mystical 
sense of the Scriptures, ^77\ his 
theological system, 378-384 ; held 
to the freedom of the will, 381 ; on 
the story of the fall, in Genesis, 
382 ; on salvation through the 
Word, 382, 383 ; on future pun- 
ishment, 384 ; his influence to-day, 
39 2 - 

PANTiENUS, his life and character, 
34o-342. 

Paphnutius, bishop of Upper Thebes, 
425 ; his speech on the celibacy of 
the clergy, 436. 

Papias, his life and writings, 139- 
141; on the second Gospel, 140; 
on Matthew's Gospel, 140 ; Euse- 
bius's disparagement of him, 141. 

Paul, the apostle, his epistles, 14 ; 
his birth, education, and conver- 
sion, 17; shaped the theology of 
the Christian Church, 17 ; his con- 
ception of the Gospel, 18 ; his 
labors and martyrdom, 18 ; on the 
distinction of days, 84, 85 ; his 
powerful personality, 100 ; his idea 
of Christianity, 163, 164. 



Index. 



455 



Paul, of Samosata, his view of Christ, 

3 2 9- 

Perpetua, her fortitude as a martyr, 
199. 

Persecutions of the Christians,- 16, 
143, 144, 156, 157, 163-217, con- 
tinued till about a.d. 310 ; by 
the Jews, 165-167; caused by the 
superstitions of the populace, 170; 
by the Roman Emperors, 173- 
266 ; their number, 179 ; by Nero, 
179, 180; by Domitian, 181; by 
Trajan, 183-186 ; by Hadrian, 
186, 187 ; by Marcus Aurelius, 
189-197; at Lyons and Vienne in 
Gaul, 194, 195 ; in Numidia and 
Carthage, 198, 199; by Septimius 
Severus, 197-199; by Maximin, 
200 ; by Decius, 200-206 ; drive 
some Christians to apostasy, 202, 
203 ; in Rome and Alexandria, 
203 ; in Carthage, 204 ; their vari- 
ous forms, 205 ; they intensify the 
Christians' faith, 206 ; under Gal- 
lus and Valerian, 206-208; sus- 
pended for forty years, 209; pro- 
mote the triumph of Christian- 
ity, 210; under Diocletian, 210- 
214. 

Pfleiderer, on Ignatius's letters, 142, 

H3- 

Philo-Judaeus, his life and senti- 
ments, 336. 

Philo-Platonism, its influence on 
Christianity, 337-340. 

Pierius, of Alexandria, 386, 387. 

Pliny, Roman governor, his pro- 
ceedings against Christians in 
Bithynia and Pontus, 184-186 ; 
his famous letter to Trajan, 184. 

Polycarp, 152-162 ; sources of infor- 
mation about him, 152, 153 ; a 
hearer of St. John, 153 ; Irenaeus 
on his acquaintance with him, 
x 53> *54 '1 entertains Ignatius, 154; 



his discussion with the bishop of 
Rome, 155 ; his rebuke of Marcion, 
155 ; his character, 155, 156, 161; 
his last days and martyrdom, 156- 
160 ; his replies to the Roman pro- 
consuls, 158, 159; his prayer at the 
stake. 159 ; his letter to the Philip- 
pians, 160, 161. 

Potamiaena, her martyrdom, 198. 

Predestination, its first appearance 
in Christian theology, 309. 

Presbyters, origin of their appoint- 
ment, and their duties, 65-67 ; ad- 
visers of the bishops, etc., 70 ; 
change in their functions, 71. 

Ptolemaus, his martyrdom, 193. 

Quarto-Deciman controversy, 80. 

Ramsay, Dr., on Ignatius's letters, 
and his martyrdom, 143 ; on the 
anti-Roman organization of the 
early Christians, 177; on Roman 
laws against Christianity, 184 ; on 
a statement of German critics 
about Trajan, 185 ; on Marcus 
Aurelius, 191. 

Ritschl, quoted, 76. 

Roman Church, deference early paid 
to it, 73 ; causes of increase of its 
bishop's authority, 73 ; St. Peter 
not its founder, 74 ; no dictation 
by its bishop allowed in this 
period, nor ever in the Eastern 
Church, 74. 

Romans, the, as conquerors and 
rulers, 33; extent of their public 
roads, .34, 35 ; their immorality, 
37 ; their disgust with life, 38 : 
their expectancy of a new message 
to men, 38. 

Sabbath, kept by the early Chris- 
tians, 84 ; its gradual disappear- 
ance, 85 ; abstinence from labor 



456 



Index. 



on it advised about a.d. 200, but 
not made compulsory till a.d. 
363, 85 ; Constantine's decree re- 
garding it, 85. 

Sacerdotalism, not recognized in the 
New Testament, nor by the Apos- 
tolic Fathers, 76 ; its claims first 
asserted by Tertullian, 76 ; sup- 
ported by Cyprian, yy. 

Sacramentalism, its first appearance, 
86-89. 

Saint Peter, when first claimed as 
founder of the Roman Church, 

73, 74- 

Saturninus, the Gnostic, his doctrine, 
288, 289. 

Seneca, on the wickedness of his age, 
36. 

Septuagint, its origin, 335 ; legendary 
account of it, 335. 

"Seven good men," of the Early 
Church, not deacons, 63. 

Severus, Septimius, Roman Empe- 
ror, persecutes the Christians, 
197-200. 

Sixtus, Roman bishop, his martyr- 
dom, 207. 

Smyrna, persecution of its Christians, 
188. 

Socrates, church historian, on the 
celebration of Easter, 80. 

Spyridon, bishop of Cyprus, anec- 
dotes of, 425, 426. 

Stanley, Dean, on Nicaea, 407 ; on 
Paphnutius, 436. 

Struggle within the Church, — Here- 
sies, 276-332. 

Sylvester, bishop of Rome, 427, 
428. 

Symphorosa, a Christian martyr, 
187. 

Synod of Egyptian and Lydian bish- 
ops that excommunicated Arius, 
400; in Bithynia, upholds Arius, 
403- 



Synods, when first held, yy, 78; 
why called, yy ; how composed, 
yy ; promoted unity, yy ; in Asia 
Minor, Gaul, Mesopotamia, Rome, 
Africa, and Spam, 78. 

Tacitus, on the early Christians, 
23, 24; quoted, 179, 180. 

Tatian, Christian apologist, 237- 
246 ; his birth, education, etc., 
237-239; becomes a gnostic, 239; 
his death, 239 ; his writings, 239 ; 
some of his Gnostic ideas, 239 ; 
his "Address to the Greeks " ana- 
lyzed, 239-244 ; his ridicule of 
the Greeks, 240 ; also of their phi- 
losophers, 241, 243 ; his " Diates- 
saron " and its history, 244, 245 ; 
value of the latter work, 245, 246; 
denounced by Irenaeus, 246. 

Tertullian, 253-273, on the multi- 
plication of Christians, 26-29 J hi s 
"Address to Scapula," "Apol- 
ogy," "To the Nations," and 
"Answer to the Jews," 26-29; 
asserts sacerdotal claims, 76; on 
baptism, 88 ; opposes infant bap- 
tism, 91 ; on the Lord's Supper, 
93 ; on the persecution of the Ro- 
man Christians, 170; his vindica- 
tion of the early Christians, 173; 
on pagan religion and philosophy, 
213 ; his life and character, 253- 
256; an advocate and jurist, 254 ; 
his character as a Christian apolo- 
gist, 254 ; espouses Montanism, 
255 ; his death, 255; character of 
his writings, 255-260 : his Mon- 
tanist writings, 255, 256 ; his men- 
tal and moral qualities, 256; his 
style, 257 ; extracts from his writ- 
ings, 257-274; his denunciation 
of the circus, 257-259 ; on pa- 
tience and penitence, 259 ; his 
apologies, 260-275 ; his " To the 



Index. 



457 



Martyrs " analyzed, 260-262 ; his 
"Apology" analyzed and char- 
acterized, 262-273 ; on Marcus 
Aurelius, 264 ; on the Roman 
sumptuary laws, 264; on the power 
and methods of demons, 267 ; on 
the organization, worship, charity, 
and pure life of the Christians, 
269-271 ; replies to charges against 
Christians, 271 ; on the pagan phi- 
losophers, 271, 272 ; on the resur- 
rection of the body, 272 ; on the 
persecution of Christians, 272, 
273; his book "Concerning the 
Testimony of the Soul," 273- 
275. 

Theology, the Latin, 442. 

Theophilus the Goth, teacher of 
Ulfilas, 427. 

Trajan, his persecutions of the early 
Christians, 175, 184-186 ; his or- 
ders to Pliny regarding the Chris- 
tians in Bithynia and Pontus, 184; 
did not initiate persecution of 
Christians, 185. 

Trinitarian controversy, its origin, 
394, 395- 



Trinitarianism, when authoritatively 
formulated, 395. 

Uhlhorn, on the mutual Jove of 
the Early Christians, 48 ; on the 
Roman roads, 34 ; on the " Seven 
good men " of the Early Church, 
63-, quoted, 215. 

Valentinus, the Gnostic, 302-311 ; 
his education and life, 302, 303 ; 
his theological system sketched, 
304-311 ; Harnack, on his system, 

3 I0 > 3"- 

Valerian, Roman Emperor, his per- 
secution of the Christians, 206 ; 
his edicts against them, 207. 

Victor, bishop of Rome, first claim- 
ant of universal dominion, 70 ; his 
excommunication of the Quarto- 
Deciman churches, 74. 

Virginity, two early epistles on it, 
109, no. 

Westcott, on the writings of Ori- 
gen, 365 ; on the writings of 
Dionysius, 386. 



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